Davis Phinney

The 30th annual Manhattan Beach Grand Prix bicycle race, the premier road cycling event of the year in the South Bay, will take place Sunday with 35 races in various age groups and categories between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. at Live Oak Park. The feature event, the pro-am, will start on a 1.4-mile circuit along Valley Drive at 1 p.m. A national field of competitors will include former U.S. and Pan American champion Davis Phinney and Tour de France veteran Jeff Pierce.

Olaf Ludwig, one of only six East German professional athletes, surged in the final 100 yards Friday and claimed the accident-marred Wilmington-to-Baltimore Road Race, the first stage of the Tour de Trump bicycle race. Ludwig, 30, winner of the 1988 Olympic road-race gold medal, covered 95.3-mile course in 3 hours 50 minutes 19 seconds on an overcast day. His margin of victory was about half a bike length. "With 200 meters left, I didn't believe I would win," Ludwig said via an interpreter.

The nationally top-ranked and sizzling UCLA water polo team (16-0) will open Pacific 10 Conference play at 10 a.m. Saturday at No. 4 USC (9-3). Last week the Bruins captured the championship of the NorCal Tournament, defeating No. 2 California, 5-4, in the final. In other tourney matches, UCLA defeated No. 3 Stanford, 6-3; Cal State Los Angeles, 14-1, and Fresno State, 11-6.

Ron Kiefel pedaled to the top of fog-covered Telegraph Hill Saturday and won the first event of the Coors International bicycle race for the fourth straight year. Kiefel, 26, of Wheatridge, Colo., posted an official time of 3 minutes 12.59 seconds in the 1.05-mile, 280-foot-high climb to the base of Coit Tower in the Fisherman's Wharf Prologue Time Trial. Petr Urgrumov of the Soviet Union was second in 3 minutes 18.39 seconds.

About 40 of the United States' best professionals and amateurs will compete in the World Cycling Championships at Stuttgart, Germany, the next two weeks. The track races, which began Tuesday at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyler Hall Velodrome, will feature Southland riders Janie Eickhoff of Los Alamitos in points and pursuit events, Steve Hegg of Dana Point in pursuits, and Maureen Manley of Thousand Oaks in the team time trial and road race.

American Davis Phinney of the 7-Eleven team won the sprint finish Sunday in the 12th stage of the 74th Tour de France cycling race. His time was 5 hours 46 minutes and 21 seconds. Frenchman Martial Gayant retained the leader's yellow jersey after the 141-mile leg from Brive-la-Gaillarde to Bordeaux. During the stage, Ireland's Sean Kelly, considered one of the favorites, withdrew from the race. Jean-Paul Van Poppel of The Netherlands finished second. Malcolm Elliot of Britain was third.

Chris Huber of Boulder, Colo., was a blur on the outside in the final sprint of the Du Pont cycling race Sunday in Newport Beach. And as he edged toward the finish, the drama mounted. Huber, 28, was on the verge of winning the overall series title by placing in front of Coors Light teammate David Farmer. Inches from the end, Huber did something so unusual that this race might be considered part theater of the absurd. He stopped.

Bob Roll of Pleasant Hill, Calif., was something of a character in European cycling circles, says Davis Phinney in his book "Training for Cycling," co-written with his wife, Connie Carpenter. At the 1989 Tour of Italy, Roll, competing for the American 7-Eleven team, reached the start of a stage well before the other competitors. While sitting around the piazza in snakeskin warm-up tights, European reporters gathered around.

Italy's Maurizio Fondriest won the World Cycling Championships Sunday in a dramatic three-man sprint finish in which Canada's Steve Bauer forced Claude Criquielion into a roadside fence, denying the Belgian the victory. As Criquielion's bike hit a concrete block holding the fence along the final stretch, Bauer looked back, saw the Belgian falling and continued. Bauer placed second but was disqualified.

Raul Alcala of Mexico thought he would use the Tour de Trump to get into shape until he realized he could win. Alcala, who lives and trains in Switzerland, concluded 11 days of consistent and strategic racing Sunday by winning the race by 43 seconds. "I came into the race only to train," Alcala said. "But I won the prologue, so I knew there was a chance to win. "It was a hard race. I never saw any flat roads, it was always up and down." Alcala, 26, said he began cycling when he was 10.