Barcelona or Bust 1000 mile 2023
An account of my dream of pushing the limits of marathon pigeon racing and clocking a bird from the International Barcelona at 1000 miles. After clocking well over the past 5 years at the National Brive 805 miles International Marseille 830 miles and Narbonne 900 miles. I set out my stall to crack Barcelona at 1000 miles. It’s being my dream since childhood to take part in this iconic race. Unfortunately my location has made this into an almost impossible task having moved to the far North east of Germany in 2010. After getting the maps out to look at the routes the pigeons would have to fly I realised just how daunting a prospect it was going to be. Being a very determined even stubborn man, I searched to find a strain that could cover the distance! All the normal names were there to investigate , Jan Aarden , Stichelbout, M Braakhuis, A Bricoix etc. After a lot of research I was really impressed with the Black murders from Marcel Braakhuis ,which were said to be very hard birds over the distance not particularly fast but reliable and that seemed to me to be what is required to compete at 800miles and more. After scouring Europe for stock birds of the golden couple lines I was lucky enough to come across a Herbert Mulders from the south of Germany he had to my astonishment he had already been putting a collection of M Braakhuis birds together since the death of M Braakhuis in 1996. This was my lucky encounter we became friends and I was gifted birds to try over the distance. These original pigeons made an immediate impression on my racing so I bought some of the older stock birds and went about finding the gems among them. The cock DV 151 09 67 and hen DV 151 09 19 have been the best pair of pigeons I’ve owned to this day they are responsible and show up in 80% of my birds pedigrees.
Fast forward to 2023 I decided early in the year that I was putting as big of a team as I possible could to Barcelona and started my Barcelona or bust vlog on Facebook and YouTube, putting myself out in front of the world with my crazy impossible notion to compete in this 1000 mile race.
The first job was to get the birds fit for July 7th using the roundabout method and using 4 races with the club out to 180 miles as trainers, then a 2 week rest and then the 550 miles from Arcis sur Aube France. This was to be the test to see who was ready for the big one. What a disaster this turned out to be sending 12 and not clocking until early second day, and on top of that loosing 3 from the 12. What birds had returned had worked so hard they were going to struggle to be fit for the big one (Barcelona International) so time to reconsider my thoughts!
It was seeming that this year is maybe not the year for me to send but the reality as it is in life was my many followers on the internet that had been following the races and the build-up would feel let down. I felt pressure to see my plan through and looked again which birds i could consider for fitness, condition and have the ability to compete in the big race.
The Team
DV 9170 20 196 Cheq c
DV 9170 21 187 white grizzle h
DV 0170 21 953 Cheq h
DV 1740 21 1002 Dk Cheq h
GB 21 72806 Light Cheq h
The birds were paired and on eggs at the time of basketing, they were on open hole all day and fed full fat seeds for the 2 weeks leading up to the race, they were all in excellent condition and I was feeling confident. The weather forecast was turning into a nightmare 30 degrees and head on strong wind which again made me question my decision to send at this point. My good friend and author of some great pigeon books Jim Emerton in one of our many daily texts managed to motivate me and push me into concentrating on the birds if they are 100% fit and healthy and you have left no stone unturned in their preparation then you should send with confidence, as regret has a bitter taste. In hindsight it was to early for some of the birds but this is a learning curve for me as well as my pigeon’s. Now that the team was set in stone I had to arrange the marking station the closest to me is Oberhausen and that is a 7 hour drive one way so on Monday the 2nd July I packed the car with Birds food ,water and music and set off to the marking station. I stopped 3 times enroute to feed and water the birds and give them a break from the constant movement as the marking station is such a long distance to travel. So far this year nothing has gone to plan, so why I thought marking would run smoothly is beyond me and as if preordained and true to form, the marking was a test of my patience! It was all great until it came to printing! No printout, what to do? After what seemed like an eternity with my emotions going from worried to angry to elation in that short time seemed like an eternity. As luck would have it the Benzing live gives you a pdf of the marking list so I was able to forward it before race time which meant the birds were on their way to the greatest race in the world , Phew! I had a great time meeting Up with some great German distance men including Oswald Schneider and a loft visit to my friend Jörg who kindly gave me a bed for the night with a full english breakfast to set me up for the Journey home.
The Race liberation from the greatest race in the world was at 7:30 am on the 7th of July into hot windy weather. Where over 16,000 pigeons and Dandilofts 5 warriors where released to make there way to every corner of europe and hopefully in to Grimmen the home of Dandilofts.
After looking at the weather and wind I made a bold prediction that history would be made in the UK and someone would clock a bird on the day and as it turned out mystic David was right and Mr Mark Gilbert clocked his bird to make History. Well done that man and all others that clocked . I was awake and in the loft for 4 days with just a few short breaks as I was so confident that a bird would make it home. The many many followers and friends were all waiting for news and would ask “anything home yet‘ To which the reply came “unfortunately not” My emotions were up and down anticipation, excitement and depression you name it I went through it.
The saving grace was the next race Paris national so after not clocking at Barcelona I really needed a boost . The Paris Race was a good race at the time of writing this it’s looking like a great section result, fingers crossed.
The 1000 mile pigeon She did it GB 21 72806 light cheq hen Bred By Herbert Mulders landed at 15:07 on the 26.July after 19 days from Barcelona to Grimmen in Germany. This brave little warrior touched down after flying 1000 miles to say I was elated is a definite understatement. I was physically shaking when I realised what she had done, an unbelievable physical and mental tour just to get home to me and the loft, a feeling of numbness hit me. A realisation of the fact that my dreams had just become a reality was very humbling this little hen has brought tears to my eyes and a skip in my step that was never there before. The real trip came after posting the arrival on Facebook the overwhelming support and kind words that were written send me once again in to outburst of emotions with the amount of pressure I had felt before the race was all just to get myself ready for the emotional roller coaster that would follow after reaching the high point of clocking at 1000 miles in front of the world of pigeon racing.
There are many people I should thank for getting me here, Herbert Mulders, Simon Shearsby, Jim Emerton, Dave Bunker Brierley, to name just a few, You have all been a part of my journey to get 1000 mile Barcelona pigeons. The journey now will be clocking in race time.
Thank you to all who have supported me.
David at Dandilofts
