Liberated Saturday, August 2nd – 09:45 AM.
A moment so quiet, you could almost hear the tension hang in the air over the French Pyrenees. The sky? Blue. The wind? Light but steady from the northwest. The atmosphere? Charged with electricity, not from a storm – but from expectation.
And then… The baskets opened.
11,860 pigeons soared into the sky. Not just any birds – but the finest warriors from six nations. Belgium. The Netherlands. France. Germany. England. Luxembourg. They rose, they formed, and they pointed North, eyes locked on home. This was it: Perpignan 2025, the last international race of the season.
And trust me, when I say the last, I mean the ultimate. Because this isn’t just any flight, this is the one where legacies are forged. This is where pigeons cross not just borders, but limits. Of their body. Of their mind. Of their instinct.
🕊️ NO ORDINARY RACE
You can feel it. You can taste it. The season’s been long. The battles have been fierce. Barcelona, Narbonne, Marseille... But Perpignan? Perpignan is different.
Perpignan is personal.
This is the race where the odds are long, the distances brutal, and only the best survive. It’s where fanciers pin their final hopes, and pigeons write their names into the sky. The final bullet in the chamber — and today, it’s been fired.
☀️ WEATHER: FROM BLESSING TO BATTLE
Let’s talk conditions, because they tell half the story.
At release in Perpignan, it couldn’t have been better. The sun glistened. The sky welcomed them. And a soft tailwind whispered: Go now. This is your time.
But the journey north is no fairytale.
Over Dijon, France, the clouds gather. The air thickens. Thunderstorms hover. Only the sharpest, strongest, and smartest birds will slice through that middle stretch without losing rhythm. The rest? They’ll feel it. They’ll fight it. They’ll need every gram of grit.
And what about the homelands? Belgium and the Netherlands are grey, wet, and heavy this morning. Rain in Flanders. Showers over Brabant. Visibility low. The roads home… anything but easy.
But we know something about these birds: They don’t look for the easy road. They fly the one that leads home.
👑 WHO WILL BE KING THIS YEAR?
Last year, Jean Paul Hageman of Vogelwaarde carved his name in stone with “Princes Mo” – the national winner of Perpignan 2024. It was a flight that echoed across the community. A reminder that champions don’t just fly fast — they fly true.
This year?
A new name waits to rise.
And maybe — just maybe — it’s yours.
🔮 THE BOSS’S TAKE
I’ve seen a lot of races.
I’ve witnessed glory and heartbreak.
But this one… this one feels special.
We had the perfect start.
We’ve got a tough middle.
We’ve got challenging arrivals.
What more could you want from a true test of class?
Those who trained with care, who prepared with precision, and who believe in their birds — they’ll be the ones smiling tonight. The rest? They’ll go back to the drawing board, because this game… this sport… shows no mercy, only truth.
🗣️ MY MESSAGE TO YOU
To every fancier who entered today: You’re part of something big. Bigger than a race. Bigger than results. To every pigeon in the sky: May the winds carry your courage, and may your heart guide you home. To every fan watching: Keep your eyes on the horizon. This is why we love this sport. The wait. The hope. The explosion of joy when a dot appears — faster than expected, braver than believed.
PERPIGNAN 2025.
The flight is on.
The battle has begun.
And by sunset… we’ll know who the legends are.
Let the clocks tick. Let the meters roll. Let the stories be written in feathers and flight.
Until the next blog,
Jan de Wijs
The Pigeon Boss
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