About Endurance Breeding Centre Europe
Endurance Breeding Centre Europe (or Endurance Pigeons) was first conceived in the summer of 2017 by Tony Byrne. The idea was to bring together the best possible collection of elite performance pigeons from the International and extreme distance races, particularly Barcelona – The greatest pigeon race in the world. The harder the Barcelona, the more Endurance Pigeons would strive to bring the blood to the breeding centre, believing these to be the most courageous and most exceptionally gifted pigeons. The elite among the elite.
Very quickly, Endurance Pigeons were able to acquire some fantastic pigeons to form the basis of the breeding centre, beating off competition from all over the world to bring the very best together, with no expense spared to achieve the vision. A 1st, 2nd and 5th National winning trio of Barcelona performers, along with 2 direct, personally selected children of ‘New Laureaat’ (1st Int Nat Barcelona) and a host of children from top National winners and Ace pigeons form the ever evolving and impressive breeding team.
In the summer of 2018, an already fantastic line-up was added to when Endurance Pigeons was able to add to their ranks the highly prestigious 1st National Barcelona 2018 winner from the Netherlands:
‘Barcelona El Cid’ – 1st Nat and 4th Int.Nat Barcelona.
This outstanding pigeon covered 1151km in 879 meters per minute to the lofts of J.L De Bruine, an extremely tough Barcelona into a head wind and in high temperatures. In the same race a full brother to the father of ‘Barcelona El Cid’ was 15.Nat – 44.Int.Nat for PWA Van De Meulen, proving the superior genealogy of this family of pigeons when the race was one of the toughest on record.
‘Barcelona El Cid’ joined ‘Conquistador’ and ‘Second Speedy’.
‘Conquistador’ of Lieven Buelens is an absolutely beautiful pigeon. His beauty is matched only by his extraordinary achievement, as a mere two year old in another extremely gruelling edition of the great Barcelona race. ‘Conquistador’ was 2.Nat – 5.Int.Nat Barcelona 2016. Only 7 pigeons in the entire International result of 17,732 entrants achieved a velocity more than 1100 metres per minute.
The loft of Lieven Buelens is renowned for being the number one Barcelona loft in Belgium over 5 years from 2011 through to 2015. In adding to this a 2.Nat Barcelona in 2016, it just strengthens the case that the Buelens pigeons are a mark of exceptional quality when looking to compete at the extreme distances. Several other Buelens breeding pigeons are also housed at Endurance Breeding Centre.
‘Conquistador’ comes from a family of top Barcelona pigeons. His Grandfather is ‘Super 609’ – 16.Nat and 81.Int.Nat Barcelona and father and grandfather to many winners including 11.Nat Barcelona, 18.Nat Perpignan.
‘Conquistador’s Grandmother was 20.Nat and 46.Int.Nat Barcelona over 25,000 pigeons. She has the lines of the legendary ‘Klamper’ of Cor De Heijde, himself in the top 10 Int.Nat with another pigeon in 2018.
‘Second Speedy’ has a race record as long or longer than most other top performers. This exquisite cock raced successfully from Barcelona in 2017 achieving 5.Nat and 10.Int.Nat flying 1120km. Add to this the following results;
- 15.Nat Dax 8000+ birds
- 60.Nat Tarbes 4600+ birds
- 91.Nat Bergerac 4600+ birds
- 180.Nat Cahors 10.000+ birds
- 427.Nat St. Vincent 9500+ birds
- 793.Nat Dax 4400+ birds
- 914.Nat. St. Vincent 6000+ birds
- 1472.Nat St. Vincent 6000+ birds
No doubting that this pigeon stands up against the very best and few can boast such a prolific National record.
‘Second Speedy’ is a son to ‘Speedy Bang’ who himself won 2.Nat Dax ‘11 and 15.Nat St. Vincent ‘10. Steeped in the Jan Theelen blood, this family will undoubtedly stand the test of time and it is only a matter of time, in our opinion, before more serial winners are produced.
The latest additions to the centre are a magnificent son and daughter to world famous ‘New Laureaat’. These were from a personally selected group by Hugo Batenburg and then further selected down to one cock and hen by our combined 70 years of experience at the centre.
There are numerous other quality breeding pigeons at Endurance Breeding Centre Europe and the details of these can be found in the Breeding Pigeons section of the webpage. These include sons and daughters of National Barcelona winners and top International and National daughters and sons of Ace pigeons. Please take your time to look at these wonderful birds more closely and contact us without delay with your requirements for children, grandchildren or special pairings.
