long distance strain

Robert BEN
has for the moment the best very long distance pigeon of the
world!!

Unbelievable, fantastic, extraordinary… We can keep on going with these kind of words, all the words that describe or declare the prestations of these champion… a phenomenon. Four times he did the double Barcelona-Perpignan, but specially the last two years were the years where his competition didn’t have any answer on the results of this pigeon. YES!! We’re not hesitating to use this word, because during each of these four races he didn’t have good circumstances, wrong direction of wind, bad weather… The pigeons were pushed to the East, the temperature was impossible, so hot! The shortest distances had a lot of advantage, but again he beated the concurrence.
The “048” doesn’t mind the heath, the wind, the rain or the bad weather circumstances, once the baskets are opened, he only thinks about one thing, getting back to his loft.
During a lot of our contacts with pigeon fanciers we already heard a lot about the superpigeon of Robert Ben. People were always telling that the “08” was sold, they were saying he was sold after Barcelona, but he flew another flight. He first had to fly Perpignan before he had some real value. People were telling all kinds of things about this pigeon and the owner, but we will try to give you an honest image of the admiration we have for these champions and their owners.

361048/98, the « Supersonique » of the modern pigeon sport! We first talked with Robert about his superpigeon.

We start immediately with giving you the most important results of his list of records.

1998
He was born in 1998 and he participated on some some general practice flights and had following results:
- 283/1996 Le Mans. - 1894/21.652 Poitiers.
1999
This was a bad year, he only won one prize, but it was just that one prize that took the attention of Robert:
- 111/2028 Saint-Vincent The liberation was delayed so none of the pigeons could arrive home at the same day.
2000
This is an important year, the year of the breakthrough:
- 56/1691 Le Mans.
- 2896/15381 Vichy.
- 164/1731 Barcelona national and 3372/26597 international.
- 3/1765 national Perpignan and 119/18246 international.
2001
This year he has two fantastic results, two fantastic results on his favourite flights
- 3/1590 Barcelona national en 44/25760 international.
- 21/1646 national Perpignan en 206/20859 international.
2002
- 360/16608 Limoges.
- 2210/10842 Tulle.
- 85/1901 Barcelona national and 2792/26928 international.
- 34/1664 Perpignan nationaal and 667/18264 international.
2003

2003 was the year of all the records, the “048” won again two topprizes from Barcelona and Perpignan. But what is more important, are the circumstances in which the pigeons had to fly, not only on Barcelona but also on Perpignan with a strong head wind and the temperature that is far above 30°C. He arrives at the loft very early in the morning which proves that he flew the biggest part the first day. Unbelievable in such circumstances.
- 2443/13154 Tulle.
- 2/1835 national Barcelona and 20/20204 international.
- 3/1514 national Perpignan and 3/16800 international.
Like you all expected, there were a lot of candidate buyers for this pigeon, pigeon fanciers came from all over the world to buy this pigeon. But Robert said no, he wanted to race his superpigeon one more year.
2004
This is the last season this pigeon races. There were some problems this year and it was more difficult for Robert to bring his superpigeon into the good shape of the last years. Was he getting too old?
- 388/13518 Limoges.
- 1362/11872 Tulle.
- 1st national Barcelona in France and 5th international against 24.914 duiven.
- 5th national Perpignan and about the 20th international !
Appearantly, he is not too old, he was even better then the years before, because this is the year he wins the 1st National Barcelona.
We had to chance to take this champion in our hands, it was a very calm pigeon. He has a very nice eye with clear circles. In Belgium we could say, the three national colours in his eyes, black, yellow and red are present, and especially the last one. His wings are perfect, not one feather gives the impression of the hard but succesfull season this pigeon had. It’s just a pigeon that feels good in your hands.

His origine is from The Netherlands. His father NL96-2261668 comes from the loft of Chris Vandervelden. He comes from a brother of the 34th nat. Dax who came from the famous “Sint-Vincenter” who won 10 prizes on the very long distance X a direct daughter from the “Witbuik” Batenburg. The grandmother on his father’s side won the 64th national Tarbes and came from the 6th international Pau X daughter Overwater.
The mother of the “048” has French ringnumer, the F97-370196 but is in fact also coming from The Netherlands. She comes from Sprenkels and has the pure Van Den Eijnde blood, but also of the “Dolle”.

The “048” has two brothers on the loft of Ben. Off course those two brothers didn’t achieve the same fantastic results as his brother. Since this year they have to go to the breeding loft. Robert doesn’t have a lot of children or grandchildren of the “048”, because he gave most of them to his friends!!

The man : Robert Ben!

He’s more or less like his pigeon, he stays in the corner, without making a lot of noise. We could talk to him for several hours and gave us the possibillity to have a correct image of him. First of all he is someone with a golden heart, he will never hurt someone, he has his own sort of humor. He is very intelligent, more intelligent then you would first think. Now he is pre-retired and is 55 years old. He used to work for one of the biggest communication company’s Alcatel. His father was also a pigeon fancier. By the way, he has 6 brothers and 5 sisters and they are all intrested in animals, off course not only pigeons but also dogs or other kinds of birds.

He started with sprint and middle distance and became one of the best players in his neihbourhood. He is able to build a special relationship with his pigeons, one way or another he always knows which pigeons will become the best ones. The successtory of his “048” is more like lovestory.

Twenty years ago he decided to started racing the long distance. He loved Barcelona and this race had a special place in his heart. He was one of the first fanciers to take some Dutch pigeons to France. First he tried to write some letters in French to some famous fanciers. Afterwards he went to Holland with his dictionary in his hand. When he came there he was surprised that he only knew a few words of Dutch. But there are no borders between pigeon fanciers so they succeeded in understanding eachother by using the ‘language of the pigeon fanciers’.

In 1989, he comes back with 4 Van Den Eijnde pigeons.
In 1991, he buys 21 youngsters from the loft Sprenkels.
In 1993, he was the victim of a robbery. Most of his pigeons probably ended in the soup of one of his neighbours.
Anyway, he kept on searching for the best pigeons and in 96 he came home with 4 Kruvers pigeons, in 99 with Théo Ernest pigeons,
in 2001 with Dingemans and VanThuyne pigeons and in 2003 with Waelkens pigeons. The only “Dutch pigeon” who didn’t came from The Netherlands directly was the father of the “048” which he bought from a friend.

For the moment the breeding lofts contains about 20 couples, 48 widowers and some yearlings who are together in the widowersloft. You read it well, because of the limited place, all the young pigeons are mixed between the breeders.
There is a little competition in the loft of the widowers. The young pigeons sometimes fly with the widowers to get a place in the loft. That’s the tactic of Robert, he makes sure there’s a little competition between the pigeons. Untill the age of two, that’s the way Robert races his pigeons. After these two years they are coupled.
Since 1999, he doesn’t race young pigeons anymore. You have to know that Robert doesn’t have a car himself and that he has to count on the goodwill of another fancier to drive him to the club. Since last year he races young pigeons again, maximum distance Angoulême. The old pigeons only start racing Barcelona when they are 3 years old. He thinks the pigeons are only ready for Barcelona when they are three years old.

There is not only the “048” at Robert Ben!
It would be to simple if we could only write about the “048”. It’s sure he is irreplaceable but there are other toppigeons on the loft of Robert Ben, like the “zwarte witpen” with an extremely beautiful eye.

The 681271/00 raced
In 2003: - 128/1469 Bourges. - 108/17443 Limoges. - 3107/13154 Tulle. - 1845/7884 Royan. - 21/19420 Dax. - 326/16800 Perpignan.
In 2004:
- 161/13518 Limoges. - 1633/11872 Tulle. – 96th national Pau. - 35/1714 national Dax. - 343/1598 Perpignan.

The 268719/99 raced :
In 2002:
- 87/936 Bourges. - 176/1901 national Barcelona. - 177/1664 national Perpignan.
In 2003:
- 648/17443 Limoges. - 3/1835 national Barcelona - 39/1514 national Perpignan.
In 2004:
- 139/1933 national Barcelona. - 10/1598 national Perpignan.
The "048" deserves his retirement, but the other pigeons are ready to succeed him.
“ Vive la France!”
The french pigeonsport was something special in 2004…The international flights were all dominated, with only some competition from the Dutch fanciers, and yet it wasn’t enough. Robert Ben receives from us the title of world champion. It is only a title, but with this performances nobody will doubt this.
At Robert Ben we found a beautiful duo. Robert and his “048”. They make one of the best teams of Barcelona the last years. It deserves to be next to the “Tee” of Emiel Denys, the "Kleine Didi" of Etienne Devos, the "Dolle" of Marijn Vangeel, the "Patrick" Van hee, the "Foreu" and "525" Roosens, l'Elektriek" Vanbruaene, the "Fou" of Germain Imbrecht, the "010" Cobut, the "Kapoen" and the "Klaren" Desmet-Mattijs, the "Benoni" and "Passe-Port" Bostijn, the "Saphir" Hetru, etc. the "048" of Robert Ben entered the gallery of the best pigeons our planet ever had. It was a big honour for us to meet Ben, and especially to hold the big champion in our own hands. Maybe he will go to another country after the season, but this wasn’t the subject of our visit. Robert Ben is a friendly pigeon fancier, a good person with the heart on the right place. It would be a pleasure to meet him again someday.