$45k & all i got were these stupid down tube shifters

I saw this on Velonews yesterday, and while the technical achievement of a 6lb bicycle is astonishing, the practicality of it is not.  It goes without saying that the UCI weight limits are there for the rider's safey, but this doesn't prevent senseless nerd-out-sessions from occurring within cycling industry.  My main complaint is expressed in the title - if you're going to make the lightest bike ever, and log "20k miles on the frame", then make it practical with some STI shifters.  Granted, this means that the fabricators would need to use a modified SRAM shifter, and then compromise somewhere else on the bike, but I found this little detail to be annoying. 
Now with that out of the way, feel free to nerd out for a little bit on this insane build:

THE ARTICLE