Daniel Navarro has become the first professional rider to climb the Peña de Alba which is rumoured to be the final climb on the queen stage of the 2015 Vuelta a Espana.

Daniel Navarro ended the 2014 season with a hard ride, staring in Mieres and climbing the Pajares, Brañilín and Cobertoria climbs before reaching Ermita de Alba which is rumouted to host the finish of stage 16 of the 2015 Vuelta. Summitting at 1173m, the climb is 6.6km long and has an average gradient of 11.2%, sections of more than 25% and some concrete sections.

At the top, he was greeted by Ovidio Garcia, the mayor or Quiros. "In one word, the climb is spectacular. The first part is not difficult but after the passage of the village, it has some very difficult percentages and the final part after Cobertoria will make a big difference," Navarro told Ciclismo de Asturias.

Navarro is training in Asturias before he joins his Cofidis teammates for a training camp in Oliva (Valencia) in mid-January. He has already designed his race schedule. The Vuelta a Murcia, Clasica de Almeria and Vuelta a Andalucía are his first three races of the season. Then he will go to Paris-Nice and the Tour of the Basque Country and he ends the first part of his season with the Ardennes classics Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. The Tour de France will be his main goal and he will try to win a stage in the French grand tour. He will use the Dauphine to prepare.