I'm a tour newbie too... got interested after reading all the books that exist on Lance. (now I'm reading Floyd's)

I bought a book called 'Tour Fever - The armchair cyclist's guide to the Tour de France' by J.P. Partland. It was very helpful.

Can you tell I love to read

What I have trouble understanding though is why do these guys attack early, stay in front the whole race and then get back in the peloton at the end and others win? What I think I understand after 5 stages is that they collect the points and let the leaders win the stage? They attack to get others to follow and so the teams get tired and can't sprint at the end?

Anyway I love it