[intakexhaust]

Quite a few comments on that Vitus frame - bonded tube / lugs. Someone I used to ride with years back had a similar frame by Trek. He was a big guy, strong rider and a chainstay to the bottom bracket broke loose. Trek covered it under warranty and sent him a new frame, on which he promptly sold it. Not sure if it was fluke but I think if you fall into the big guy, strong rider catagory, just something to think about.

As for carbon frames, I used to ride Kestral monocogue road and also off-road (hard tail)framesets. Stiff if thats what you want. I worried a few times after some hard crashes but never had an issue. My faves are steel frames from Ritchey and vintage Colnago.

Getting back to the topic of components, I'd first decide on a wheel build and what kind of a rider you are. Spend the money on the right set of wheels and you can easily sacrifice on the eye candy components. A topic too much to cover here but if you do some research, it's about quality, rolling resistance and outer mass. I've ridden many different wheels and designs on a same frameset and I honestly feel the aero talk of a bike wheel is more novelty.

Wheels are different for everyone and the type of riding. One of my best wheelsets I regretfully sold to someone in Japan was built with Nuke proof hubs, 32 hole, front radial laced with carbon bladed spokes (forgot the name of the company and not sure if still around???), spline drive nipples, Campy Lambda rims and the rear was 32 hole with ti spokes radial laced on the non drive side and a triple cross on the drive side. Also used titanium gear sets on the bigger gears. You would think it was wippy but actually so quick under sprint, light, stiff and a ride to die for on club century's.