And he made himself heard again in 2019 with a brilliant result in Marseille: he clocked all his six pigeons within 45 minutes!
Pastel and Kobe the bullet...
"Things went quite well here", Kristof says with a broad smile. "I basketed my six cocks, raced in classic widowhood, including my top bird Kobe, who has never missed a prize. I clocked our first pigeon, Pastel (BE17-6171494), at 19:51, and Kobe arrived home exactly 12 minutes later. He pushed a youngster out of the way before rushing inside. "This is a terrific racing cock, says Kristof. "This is already his 12th top result in the long distance, and Marseille appears to suit him particularly well. He did four races from Marseille, and he wins a top prize in each of them, including a 134th national this year.
Pastel, 5th provincial Marseille and 10th provincial Montelimar 2019
Kobe, winner of four first prizes in Marseille, including a 1st provincial!
This really set the tone. Pastel, 5th provincial, and Kobe, 12th provincial, had already arrived home, and they were shortly followed by the rest of the team, at 20:29, 20:30, 20:33 and 20:35. He had 4 pigeons arrive home in six minutes (!), and they claimed an 18th, 20th, 21st and 25th provincial. "I could finally close the door to the loft and sleep in a bit", Kristof said jokingly.
The sequel to Narbonne
The race from Narbonne gave him the confidence he needed for the next major classic: Narbonne. "You can expect anything to happen when the team is in good form", he explains. And a lot did happen that day for Kristof: the one year olds Hermine (BE18-6218059) and Sofie (BE18-6218130) went on to win a 2nd and 5th provincial Narbonne.
Hermine, 2nd provincial Narbonne 2019 (click here for her pedigree)
Sofie, 5th provincial Narbonne 2019 (click here for her pedigree)
A good quality breed = a good quality breed
The line of stock breeder De Jelle continues to thrive. Let's take Pastel for example: he is a great-grandson of Jelle. And you can tell from the pedigrees of Hermien and Sofie that they are both related to a sister of Jelle. The sire of Pastel is BE16-6275645. He is a brother of Kobe, and he is related to a sister of Jamie from his mother's side, winner of a 1st Provincial Agen and a 5th Provincial Perpignan. "You don't have to overthink things. A good quality bloodline will inevitably breed talented youngsters, it's as simple as that", says Kristof. "Fanciers from across Belgium have seen my pigeon lofts, which are far from luxurious. Some concrete panels, a corrugated iron roof, a wind breaking mesh at the front and gratings everywhere. The pigeons get a full tray, and full does mean full. During the season the pigeons get an additional 10 grams of feed when they get home. I give a mixture of peanuts, sunflower seeds, TOVO, chia seeds, nutripower and sweet seeds. They have full crops by the time they are finished, and they can then peck as much as they want. A good diet is important: after completing Agen they had two races from Quievrain, a flight from Noyon and another middle distance race before being basketed for Narbonne. Nutrition is vitally important at a time like this", Kristof explains.
stock breeder "De Jelle", a phenomenal breeder