Blazin' Saddles: 12 predictions for in the Tour de France

Having studied the route, watched the warm-up races and peered into his crystal ball, our resident cycling guru Felix Lowe – aka Blazin' Saddles – underlines a dozen things to look out for in the Grande Boucle this July.

After his enforced sabbatical last season, Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) showed he still has what it takes with back-to-back wins on Dutch soil in the Giro d'Italia in May. The German flat-track bully has twice won the Tour's first stage and a revitalised Kittel could well make it a hat-trick of opening-day yellow jerseys beside Utah Beach at Saint-Marie-du-Mont. If he does, it will be his first on mainland France.

All in all, watch out for the Germans once again this year with national champion Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal), Kittel and his former team-mate John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) all likely to be in the mix. Also, expect one of the French stars to win a maiden Tour stage too: Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie), Arnaud Demare (FDJ) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) have all been knocking on the door for a while now.

World champion Peter Sagan has not won a stage on the Tour since 2013 – a run of races that has seen the Slovakian finish in the top five 24 times while picking up three green jerseys. It's no given, but if Sagan wins a fourth consecutive green this July he will surely end his barren run. He certainly has the attributes to get off to a flying start in stage two to Cherbourg, which climaxes with the two-kilometre Côte de la Glacerie with its stinging maximum gradient of 14%.

As the riders leave the Manche (after a record-breaking 435km in a single department) and edge into the neighbouring Mayenne, look out not only for the châteaux but for FDJ riders on the loose: the stage 3 route from Granville to Angers passes through Renazé, home of team manager Marc Madiot and his directeur sportif brother Yvon.

No-one likes Bagnères-de-Luchon as much as Thomas Voeckler and the fading housewives' favourite will eye a hat-trick of wins in the famous spa town after being denied a third by Mick Rogers in 2014. The Pyrenean stage from Pau features the mythical Tourmalet, as well as the Hourquette d'Ancizan (tackled from the north side for the first time) and the Peyresourde (the shortest, but steepest of the bunch). The final descent to the town known as the 'Queen of the Pyrenees' will be a huge test – especially if wet. Tommy will be licking his tongue in anticipation.

This stage has the Purito's name all over it – quite literally. Given Katusha's veteran Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez lives in Andorra, it'll be no surprise to see the locals' allegiance painted all over the roads. It's worth adding that it was crashing in the Principality on this stage's penultimate climb – the Collada de Beixalis – where Chris Froome's Vuelta hopes were extinguished last September.

It doesn't get much bigger than a Bastille Day storming of Mont Ventoux – just ask Froome, whose victory over Nairo Quintana on the Giant of Provence on 14th July 2013 secured his maiden maillot jaune. Three years on and the script could be very similar – although the likes of Romain Bardet (Ag2R-La Mondiale) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) will no doubt do their best to become the first Frenchman to win on their country's national holiday since David Moncoutié in 2005.

Provided Froome gets through the opening week and shows the kind of form he displayed in the Dauphiné it would be a surprise not seeing him win two more stages: at least one of the time trials and, perhaps, the stage to the dam at Finhaut-Émosson.

While Britain's Steve Cummings may start the race as one of team-mate Mark Cavendish's lead-out men, expect the attacking Dimension Data man to have a hall pass for his own ambitions when the road gets lumpy. The transitional stage 10 to Revel looks tailor-made for the rider who rode to glory in Mende 12 months ago.

Much has been made of Thibaut Pinot's improvement in racing against the clock – and for good cause: the Frenchman had already notched two ITT victories this season before becoming France's national time trial champion. Either the rolling 37km stage 13 through the stunning Ardèche gorge or the hilly 17km TT from Sallanches to Megève (which features the Côte de Domancy and Côte de Chozeaux) are not beyond Pinot's grasp. Provided Froome is on an off-day.

All eyes will be on local favourite Fabian Cancellara when the race heads to his native Bern in stage 16. Perfect foil, perhaps, for another Swiss to spring a surprise: eighth overall last year, it's time the ultra-conservative Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling) came out of his shell.

The locals will have another chance one day later in stage 17, which concludes with a steep climb to the Finhaut-Émosson dam. If the favourites are marking each other out, a break could well thrive – and provided he's not pacing FDJ leader Pinot, Switzerland's Sébastien Reichenbach (who hails from nearby Martigny) could climb to a rare win.

If Nairo Quintana wants to win this Tour, he cannot leave it to the last day like last year. Cue the Colombian going on the offensive in the first of final back-to-back short-and-sharp stages around Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe. The day after the second ITT, stage 19 boasts the race's fourth and final summit finish on an afternoon of unheralded climbs with two alternative routes up the same Forclaz mountain scaled previously in Switzerland.

With double-digit gradients near the summit, the Montée de Bisanne takes a bow before the riders drop down the Col des Saisies ahead of the final slog to Saint-Gervais-les-Bains. Starting with a huge 12.9% ramp, the irregular Côte de Amerands is where Froome cracked Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and beat Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) for a win in last year's Dauphiné.

The Tour's final showdown is no ding-dong summit finish but a heart-in-mouth downhill after a draining succession of categorised climbs. The last card in this yellow crusade could indeed be played on the winding 12km descent to Morzine, where Carlos Sastre, Richard Virenque and Marco Pantani are among previous winners.

Marcel Kittel won the final stage in Paris in both 2013 and 2014 before sitting out the race last year, when his compatriot Andre Greipel took the spoils. Germany's run in Paris could come to an end this year thanks to the continued threat poised by Norway's sprinters. Twice in the top three in Paris but yet to lift his arms in celebration, bequiffed Viking Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) has proved he can still hit top speed at the back-end of a three-week battering.

Meanwhile, look no further than Edvald Boasson Hagen as an outside bet. Provided he's still there, the romantics will fancy Boasson Hagen's Dimension Data team-mate Mark Cavendish – a four-time winner in Paris. This, however, could allow the Norwegian national champion to pass under the radar.