Local Schedule

SANTA ROSA — Lance Armstrong finished among the leaders in the Tour of California’s opening stage on an exasperating Sunday that included drenching rain, a flat tire and even the theft of his time-trial bike.

Isaac Lopez had 90 pages to read for his nursing major studies Sunday at Pacific Union College. But when he heard that Lance Armstrong was headed to Angwin as part of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California, Lopez took a break and left the library to see what all the excitement was about on a rainy afternoon, made all the more dreary by winds and chilly temperatures that dropped into the high 30s.

The black bear nicknamed “Lil’ Smokey” by his rescuer was returned to the wild recently by DFG personnel. The bear was released at a remote site in western Siskiyou County.

Matt Yourkin can’t explain what happened exactly, other than to say something finally clicked late in the 2008 season when he was pitching for Jupiter, a high Class A team in the Florida Marlins organization.

Dave Houck recently took his 5-year-old sons, Russell and Bradley, sturgeon fishing at the mothball fleet.

It sounds like a broken record, but fishing is not hot right now.

The Register’s Web guy, Brian Kennedy, is a die-hard San Francisco Giants fan. As a byproduct of that devotion, he is a huge follower of Cy Young Award-winning ace pitcher Tim Lincecum.