Mannie HEYMANS

Mannie Heymans competed three times in Olympic mountain biking but was also a top road racer, the greatest ever from his small African nation. At the 1998 Commonwealth Games, Heymans placed 16th in the road time trial and 34th in the road race. In 1999 he was sixth in the African Games road time trial, and again 16th in the road race. He placed 9th in 2000 on the road in the Tour de Cap, while in 2006 he had best international finish ever, placing ninth in the mountain bike at the Commonwealth Games, after placing 12th in 2002, also competing in the road race at those 2006 Games, although he failed to finish. Heymans competed at the 2002 World Championships in the road, finishing 56th in the time trial, and at the 2003 mountain biking World Championships he was 65th in cross-country. But he bettered that finish in 2008 when he was 18th in the mountain biking marathon race at the Worlds.