THE SIDELINES : Cycling Gold for E. Germans, Soviets

East Germany, reduced to three racers over the last 15 kilometers, won the men’s team time trial race today at the World Cycling Championships, while the Soviet Union edged defending champion Italy in the women’s race by less than a second.

The East Germans, the Olympic champions, won the 100-kilometer (62.2-mile) men’s race in 2 hours, 2 minutes, 36.29 seconds after one of its members, Falk Boden, dropped out with about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) left. Mario Kummer, Jan Schur and Maik Landsmann carried on and won as just three finishers are needed.

Poland, the silver medalist at Seoul, was second in 2:03:19.35. Third went to the Soviet Union in 2:03:37, ahead of the United States, riding with Mike McCarthy, Jim Copeland, John Stenner and John Frey, in 2:04.54.

In the women’s race in the morning, the Soviet quartet of Laima Zilporitee, Tamara Poliakova, Nadjezda Kibardina and Natasha Melekhina was timed for the 50-kilometer (31.1-mile) distance in 1:08:05.02, just 87-hundredths of a second ahead of the Italian foursome of Monica Bandini, Maria Canins, Roberta Bonanomi and Francesca Galli.

Fifth place went to the American team of Betsy Davis, Maureen Manley, Linda Brenneman and Marge Maass. The U.S. squad was clocked in 1:09:42.80.