Strategy suggestions for bike purchase

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Hi Flks,

Hopefully someone can help me. I am a somewhat portly (30 Ibs overweight) 39 year old who has just been persauded to take on a major sportif by some elite road riders. Bascially I've got 7.5 months to get myself to the point where I can ride 260km at a pace of around 20 mph. Failure is not an option. As and when I am fit enoguh I intend too start racing again (last time I raced was 15+ years ago)

I have to buy a bike.

I will also purchase a VR trainer or similar as the nights are drawing in and I work long hours so will have to do a lot of indoor training.
When it comes to bikes tho am at a loss. The bikes I've seen so far have all been in the (£1.8K to £3.5K built up). I haven't looked at anything cheaper but am open to looking at cheaper bikes

How much do I need to spend to get something which can cope with long rides. An 8 hour ride on mixed road terrain with a fair amount of cobbled stretches at 20mph. Which I can subsequently use to time trial/train on and road race. Which will prove long lived.

I'm not really budget constrained tho have slight guilt feelings about about spending 1000's on a bike.

Question is do I buy something cheapish now to do the training on (if so what) and then subsequently say, 1.5 months before the ride buy something really nice to do the ride on. This has the benefit of ensuring that should some mishap befall me and I injure myself or get sick I haven't wasted the money but ultimately costs more.

Do I just go the whole hog and buy something nice now to train/do the ride and race on

I have tried a Specialised Roubaix (with a curvy top tube) which I liked
A Specialised S Works Roubaix in a custom build (all campy centaur) which I liked more even tho the frame size was wrong.
A Cervelo r3 sl which I found very twitchy tho it was a fantastic weight
A Trek 5.2sl which I think might have been too big (felt very stretched out tho stable like the Specialized

It has been suggested that I look at an Eddy Mercx Carbon CHM built up with Dura Ace (around £2K)

Answers and suggestions gratefully received

You may want to look at BMC.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2005/apr05/roubaix05/tech/?id=phonak

20 mph in a pack or solo? I'd be more interested in you training plan than the type of bike you're planning to buy.

Thanks for the suggestion

I know the trainings more important than the bike but the fact is that without a bike I will be unable to train or do the ride. I need the one to do t'other. I will probably need a coach also but have been wondering whether there's any point till I've got some basic cycling fitness (which I guess only comes from doing some base miles).

In the meantime I'd like to get the bike purchase done and dusted and get all the things I need so that I can settle down to doing the hard work. Given the amounts of money involved I'd rather make the right decisions than the wrong ones.

Rgds

SHould have said as we will be riding in a group I guess you'd call it a pack (I have experience of this tho from a long time ago)



Thanks for the suggestion

I know the trainings more important than the bike but the fact is that without a bike I will be unable to train or do the ride. I need the one to do t'other. I will probably need a coach also but have been wondering whether there's any point till I've got some basic cycling fitness (which I guess only comes from doing some base miles).

In the meantime I'd like to get the bike purchase done and dusted and get all the things I need so that I can settle down to doing the hard work. Given the amounts of money involved I'd rather make the right decisions than the wrong ones.

Rgds