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