Aywaille – the small village between Sprimont and Spa – is well known among cycling enthusiasts as the home village of Philippe Gilbert and for the mythical climb of La Redoute. It is in this rolling landscape that the lofts of Maxime Lambert are located. This young fancier from the Liège region has already firmly established his place within modern pigeon racing.
Maxime began his pigeon career in 2012, infected with the racing virus by his uncle. In the early years, the focus was on sprint and short middle-distance races. Until 2020, competition was mainly concentrated on these distances, but from 2021 onwards a clear strategic shift was made towards the big middle distance and the long-distance races.
A carefully built team with absolute top bloodlines
For the big middle-distance races, targeted investments were made in proven performance bloodlines. The names introduced into the breeding loft speak for themselves:
André Roodhooft
Gaby Vandenabeele
Gerard Koopman (via Gobert Michèle)
Julien Nibus
Marcel Wouters
Marcel Grégoire
Tandem Hensen–Mentoir (1st National Champion Sprint Young Birds KBDB 2022)
For the heavier long-distance races, recent reinforcements were made with pigeons from absolute top lines:
Batenburg–Van de Merwe (New Laureaat, Kleine Jade, Loyd, Willeke, New Wittenbuik, Jana…)
Bert Saarloos (son of “Nico”, 1st Dutch Ace Pigeon Barcelona 2021–2023 & 5th International Ace Pigeon)
Guy Baerts
Remy Speltdoorn
Vincent Meunier (line “Marseille”, 6th National Marseille 2020)
Gerard Ameloot (son of the 3rd International Ace Pigeon Marseille over 5 years)
François & Mireille Bovy
Vve Caro
De Keyser–Dethier
Vincent Schröder
Alexandre Derycke & Marie-Hélène Grevesse
This concentration of quality in the breeding loft quickly made its impact felt.
Performances on his own loft and with other fanciers
Although since 2023 Maxime has been less active on his own loft due to professional commitments and some setbacks, his pigeons have distinguished themselves even more strongly with other fanciers.
An absolute highlight under his own name remains the 1st Zonal Tulle in 2022, won with BE21-1025016 “Le Tulle”, which also achieved:
26th of 1,399 pigeons at Nevers
7th of 629 pigeons at Châlons
With other fanciers, pigeons bred by Maxime Lambert have already won, among others:
1st Provincial & 4th Zonal Argenton
1st Provincial Melun
5th Provincial Pont
6th Provincial Melun
11th National Bourges 2024
1st Melun
3rd Orléans
4th Nevers
53rd of 5,114 pigeons at Nevers
etc.
Internationally as well, his pigeons have proven their quality in One Loft Races, with highlights such as:
10th Final Derby Istanbul FCI (502 km) – Best Belgian pigeon
26th Final Derby Costa del Sol
Strong results over the years
2019–2021
Saint-Dizier (208 km)
2nd, 34th, 36th / 402 local
6th, 124th, 126th / 1,100 Groupement Centre Luxembourg
40th / 2,378 Groupement Luxembourgeois
Châlons-en-Champagne (193 km)
4th, 24th / 159 local
4th / 294 Groupement Centre
7th, 46th, 50th / 629 Groupement Luxembourgeois
Nevers (428 km)
6th, 20th / 210 local
15th, 64th / 607 Groupement Centre Luxembourg
26th, 122nd / 1,399 Groupement Luxembourgeois
Season 2020
Due to an IT problem, no overall classifications are available, but locally very strong performances were achieved, including:
Mâcon (464 km): 14th, 35th, 37th, 41st, 42nd, 65th / 196 (6/6)
Troyes (268 km): 1st, 16th, 18th / 58 local + 1st Groupement Luxembourgeois
Arcis-sur-Aube (242 km): 3rd, 11th, 12th, 19th / 88 (4/4)
Confirmation in 2024 and 2025
The 2024 season brought a 6th National place at La Souterraine, with a pigeon from the Lambert strain.
In 2025, this line was convincingly continued with performances at all levels:
84th National Marseille (50% Lambert)
78th of 651 Cahors Zone C (50% Lambert)
5th Final Derby Carmelo Yupi (50% Lambert)
70th Final Great Derby Algarve (50% Lambert)
273rd National Valence (own loft)
In addition, numerous strong results followed at local, provincial and zonal level (Lorris, Sancoins, Libourne, Argenton, Valence and Tulle), underlining the depth and consistency of the team.
Total auction – a unique opportunity
This report clearly shows that this is not merely about promise, but about proven quality, built with vision, knowledge and patience.
The total auction therefore offers an exceptional opportunity to acquire pigeons from a loft where:
top performances were achieved at all levels and distances
proven international bloodlines come together
results were achieved both on the home loft and with other fanciers
A rare chance to draw directly from the entire collection of a young, yet already established name in Belgian pigeon sport.