While there is much debate about this, personally if I'm planning to put a lot of miles on a bike I want that bike to be good, comfortable steel....hold on, all my bikes *are* steel...lol...anyway, your budget allows for lots of choices, and considering that, while out test riding, I'd consider checking out the steel touring bikes, such as the ones from Jamis (the Quest and Eclipse, okay the Eclipse is more of a steel race bike) several riders in my local club ride the Quest and love it. Either of them is within a pound of weight of a similarly priced carbon or aluminum bike, so weight isn't really an issue....comfort is.