René Pijnen

René Pijnen

René Pijnen in 1975
Personal information
Full name	Marinus Augustinus Josephus Pijnen
Nickname	René
Born	(1946-09-03) September 3, 1946 Woensdrecht, the Netherlands
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	72 kg (159 lb)
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Track and road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Six-day / Madison race
Medal record Competitor for the  Netherlands Road bicycle racing Olympic Games Gold 1968 Mexico City Team time trial UCI Road World Championships Bronze 1967 Heerlen Amateur road race UCI Track Cycling World Championships Silver 1973 San Sebastian Individual pursuit Bronze 1974 Montreal Individual pursuit
Infobox last updated on October 12, 2007

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

He became Olympic champion in the 100 km team time-trial in the 1968 Summer Olympics with Joop Zoetemelk, Fedor den Hertog and Jan Krekels; he finished fifth in the individual road race.^[1]

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 also was a time trial expert, winning several. He won four stages of the Vuelta a España, three of those in the 1971 Vuelta, which he led for 10 days.^[2]

Pijnen rode on the road with TI-Raleigh, 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.^[2]

After cycling

When he retired, he ran – among other enterprises he already started during his cycling career – an hotel in Bergen op Zoom, the Noord-Brabant region where he was born.

References

Pijnen in July 1969

Wikimedia Commons has media related to René Pijnen.