René Pijnen

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René Pijnen
Personal information
Full name Marinus Augustinus Josephus Pijnen
Nickname René
Date of birth September 3, 1946 (1946-09-03) (age 61)
Country Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands
Team information
Current team Retired
Discipline Track and road
Role Rider
Infobox last updated on:
October 12, 2007
Medal record
Competitor for the Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands
Road bicycle racing
Olympic Games
Gold 1968 Mexico City Team time trial

Marinus "René" Augustinus Josephus Pijnen (born September 3, 1946 in Woensdrecht, Noord-Brabant) was a Dutch racing cyclist. He became Olympic champion of the Team 100k Time Trial in the 1968 Summer Olympics along with Joop Zoetemelk, Fedor den Hertog and Jan Krekels.

A professional cyclist from 1969 to 1987, Pijnen was a highly 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 riding partners. He also was a time trial expert and won several of these on the Pro Cycling circuit. He also has won 4 stages on the Vuelta a España (with three of those coming in the 1971 Vuelta, where he also held the leader's jersey for 10 days).

Pijnen rode on the road with the TI-Raleigh team, managed by another Dutch track specialist, Peter Post, 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.

When he retired, he ran a hotel in the Noord-Brabant region where he was born.

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