Roy Knickman

Roy Knickman, 11-time national champion as a junior and a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic cycling team, has been billed by some as the next Greg LeMond. The message has been that he's very good, and that he or Andy Hampsten, who is currently riding in the Tour de France, may be the United States' next great cyclist. But two months ago, Knickman was thinking that he might not have a future in cycling.

Roy Knickman, 11-time national champion as a junior and a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic cycling team, has been billed by some as the next Greg LeMond. The message has been that he's very good, and that he or Andy Hampsten, who is currently riding in the Tour de France, may be the United States' next great cyclist. But two months ago, Knickman was thinking that he might not have a future in cycling.

Sean Yates of Britain powered to a strategic stage victory, while Dutchman Jelle Nijdam retained his race lead in the third stage of the Tour DuPont bicycle race. Yates, who rides for Motorola, surged past Roy Knickman of Boulder, Colo., and Jim Copeland of Winston-Salem, N.C., with about 2 1/2 miles left before completing the 115.7-mile Port Deposit to Hagerstown, Md., road race in 5 hours 6 minutes 46 seconds.

Alan McCormack of the Killian's Red Irish Team sprinted into the lead with 200 yards to go Sunday to win the San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf Criterium of the Coors International bicycle race. McCormack, 29, had an official time of 1 hour 30 minutes 22 seconds in the 45-lap, 39.6 mile event. Teun Van Vliet, 24, of the Holland Professional Team was second followed by American Roy Knickman, 21, of the Levi's Team.

Davis Phinney led his 7-Eleven teammates to a second consecutive sweep in the Coors International Bicycle race in Sunday's 60-mile race through the streets of this posh resort. It was the 12th stage for the men, who began the series in Hawaii on Aug. 5, and the second stage for the women, who began on Saturday. "We really wanted to demoralize everybody," said Phinney, of Boulder, Colo. "It was like riding with a train."

With a soupcon of hyperbole, race director Alex Baum calls the bicycle competition "the American equivalent of a one-day Tour de France." In the absence of Alps or even Pyrenees, Baum exaggerates somewhat; nevertheless, Sunday's Kern's Classic International Cycling Road race is hardly a pedal in the park.

The South Bay's version of the Tour de France will be the 29th annual Grand Prix Bike Races of Manhattan Beach, scheduled all day Sunday next to Live Oak Park, 1600 Valley Drive. More than 1,000 entrants are expected in a variety of races and age-group competitions. About 150 riders will compete in the featured 84-kilometer (50-mile) Senior 1-2 Pro Race, which starts at 1 p.m. and consists of 35 laps around the course on Valley, Pacific and Ardmore avenues and 15th Street.