Marinus "René" Augustinus Josephus Pijnen (born 3 September 1946) is a Dutch former

racing cyclist Cycle sport is competitive physical activity using bicycles. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, and cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling spo ...

. He became Olympic champion in the 100 km team time-trial in the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Mexico 1968 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico. These were the first Ol ...

with

Joop Zoetemelk Gerardus Joseph "Joop" Zoetemelk (; born 3 December 1946) is a Dutch former professional racing cyclist. He started and finished the Tour de France 16 times, which were both records when he retired. He also holds the distance record in Tour de F ...

, Fedor den Hertog and Jan Krekels; he finished fifth in the individual road race.

Professional career

A professional from 1969 to 1987, Pijnen was a capable track cyclist, winning the European madison championship six times, a record he shares with Patrick Sercu). He also won 72 six-day races out of 233 starts, with numerous partners. He was also a

time trial In many racing sports, an sportsperson, athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial (TT) against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athle ...

expert, winning several. He won four stages of the

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; ) is an annual stage race, multi-stage bicycle racing, bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Ital ...

, three of those in the 1971 Vuelta, which he led for 10 days. Pijnen rode on the road with

TI–Raleigh TI–Raleigh was a Dutch professional track cycling and road bicycle racing cycling team, team between 1972 and 1983. In that decade the team won over 900 races. The team was created and led by Peter Post. In his own cycling career, his nickname w ...

, managed by another Dutch track specialist,

Peter Post Peter Post (12 November 193314 January 2011) was a Dutch professional cyclist whose career lasted from 1956 to 1972. Post competed in road and track racing. As a rider he is best remembered for Six-day racing, having competed in 155 races and wo ...

, but he said the length of road races bored him, and that he frequently found himself looking at his watch to see how much longer he would have to ride.

After cycling

When he retired, he ran – among other enterprises he already started during his cycling career – a hotel in

Bergen op Zoom Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the Brabantian dialect, local dialect) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in southwestern Netherlands. It is located in the Province ...

, the North Brabant province where he was born.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pijnen, Rene 1946 births Living people Olympic gold medalists for the Netherlands Dutch male cyclists Dutch track cyclists Olympic cyclists for the Netherlands Cyclists at the 1968 Summer Olympics People from Woensdrecht Olympic medalists in cycling Dutch Vuelta a España stage winners Medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics UCI Road World Championships cyclists for the Netherlands Cyclists from North Brabant 20th-century Dutch sportsmen 21st-century Dutch people

Professional career

After cycling

See also

References