"This cross-fertilization of different materials provides a near-religious experience when astride it."

Oh man, I love language differences translated raw. (seriously, that wasn't sarcasm... I think it's great!)

Anyway, on the steel/carbon mix: you can get the bike pretty light. I'm not sure how that frame compares to the Bianchi Virata from 2004 (also a Steel/Carbon mix), but you can easily get it down to less than 16.5 pounds on a reasonable budget ($1200 for everything except for frame/fork). See this as an example, at 16.33 pounds (7.39kg):



(it's actually now lighter, having swapped out the saddle and lowered the stem and cut the steerer)