Specialist climbers lick their lips as Rás heads to Donegal

The 2012 An Post Rás will take a north-westerly bent this May, visiting Donegal for the first time in five years but reducing its footprint in Munster to one stage between Kilkenny and Gort as a result.

Unlike last year, when the event included stage finishes in Clare, Kerry, Cork and Waterford, there will be none in the southern province this time, with the peloton passing only briefly through parts of Tipperary, Limerick and Clare on its way west.

“It isn’t really possible to go down to, say, Kerry and then all the way up to Donegal,” said race director Dermot Dignam at the launch of the race’s 60th edition in Dublin’s GPO on O’Connell Street yesterday.