Let's talk hardware.

It was a sad day recently. I took the tough decision that it was time to replace my trusty old Colnago Dream and get a new steed. The Colnago was an impulse second hand buy, a bargain, but always slightly too small - I could never comfortably ride on the drops.

But, oh my, was it a sexy bike.

So, I saddled up to the BBC's excellent cycle-to-work scheme. If you haven't tried it - do! Its an amazing government initiative to get more people riding, where you get a shiny new bike deducted from your wages before you pay tax, so you end up paying around half as much as the cost price for the bike. What's not to like?

The only problem was that you have to buy the bike from halfords. Now, for the benefit of those without experience of this place, its the sort of shop where families go to buy their kids their first bike, which then breaks through a perfect storm of material product crapness and the astonishing mechanical ineptitude of the monkeys who work there. Its really not good, and to be honest having to chose a new bike from there felt like switching from a Ferrari to a Ford, no matter how much magic tax-free value it was.

But lo! Skittering over the horizon came british olympic and world champion, Chris Boardman and his new bike range, worryingly only available through Halfords. Promisingly (as those of you who have ever read his bike reviews in the mags will know), Chris is a bit of a bike snob.

So, took a punt on it and got the Boardman Team Carbon. Full carbon, Sram Rival, under a grand... or £500 with C-T-W. And its amazing! Seriously, this thing translates to a noticeably faster average speed. Its light, stiff, it flies uphill. Bike technolgy has moved on somewhat in the last few years it seems. And Halfords? Well, it wasn't set up quite right, but it wasn't shocking. Maybe I got lucky.

But overall, go for it. Don't fear the Boardman, if anyone gets snobby just flick it up a gear and burn them off on the nearest hill. Trust me, this bike shifts.