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

racing cyclist Cycle sport is Competition, 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 ...

. He became

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

champion in the 100 km team time-trial in the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...

with

Joop Zoetemelk Hendrik 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 T ...

, Fedor den Hertog and

Jan Krekels Jan Jozef Alfons Franciscus Krekels (born 26 August 1947) is a retired cyclist from the Netherlands. He became Olympic champion in the 100 km team time trial in 1968 with Joop Zoetemelk, René Pijnen and Fedor den Hertog; at the same Games ...

; he finished fifth in the individual road race.

Professional career

A professional from 1969 to 1987, Pijnen was a capable

track cyclist Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it wa ...

, winning the European madison championship six times, a record he shares with

Patrick Sercu Patrick Sercu (27 June 1944 – 19 April 2019) was a Belgian cyclist who was active on the road and track between 1961 and 1983. On track, he won the gold medal in the 1 km time trial at the 1964 Summer Olympics, as well as three world titl ...

). 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 athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athlete or team sets off at ...

expert, winning several. He won four stages of the

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage 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'Italia, the r ...

, 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 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 was the ''Six D ...

, 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 won ...

, 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 local dialect) is a municipality and a city located in the south of the Netherlands. Etymology The city was built on a place where two types of soil meet: sandy soil and marine clay. The sandy soil p ...

, 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 of 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 people 21st-century Dutch people

Professional career

After cycling

See also

References