Can anyone point me to a good summary of how the sport of cycling works?  Outside of the Tour de France and the top 5 or 10 cyclist I don't know much.  I see there are links to several team pages, news sites, and other blogs but until I have a base to build on they don't seem to make much sense?  Is each tour completely independent?  Is their a point system to crown a yearly winning rider?  Team?  I could go on for a while but I am sure someone has a great breakdown I could just read that will answer my questions.

Thanks