Just want to say thanks for your help guys, you gave me a good few things to think about.
Virtually everyone I spoke to said the Boardman's are great bikes so I ended up having a go on the Boardman Pro Carbon, Trek Madone and a Scott bike.
I found the Trek easily the most comfortable, one which I could spend a great deal of time on.
With the Scott bike I found that I leant very far over the handle bars (which I understand the geometry of the frame is purposefully supposed to do, to create a faster more responsive bike). For me this just wasn't comfortable, although it was a great bike.
Finally the size and shape of the Boardman frame felt uncomfortable in both the Large and XL frame size. I felt like I was stretching to reach the handlebars on the XL and the Seat tube on the Large wasn't tall enough. The measurements on these frames seem very strange.
As a result I purchased a Trek 4.5 Madone, 2009 model for £1,400 from a local independent bike shop. Not only was this the most comfortable, but I'm so glad I don't have to go through
Halfords. Their staff just didn't give me confidence in the bike I might have been buying and didn't seem to know much about it. The guys in the local store spent a couple of hours with me going through potential bikes and demonstrating the quality of the Trek carbon frames.
Happy with my choice, hopefully it will stand the test of the next few months!
Thanks again.
I'll be keeping everyone updated with progress for UKin1 over the next few months at
www.richardwestover.com
