Fun fast hybrid needed, but which one?

My work has finally signed up to a cycle to work scheme, but bloody hell, it's Halfords. Great.

I need (want) a nice fast-ish hybrid bike, with minimal maintenance and with a bit of a hooligan ride. I need (want) an 8sp Alfine hub (can't be doing with faffing about with indexing deralileurs on a commuter), disk brakes, prefable hydraulic (again with the faffing), and ideally a steel frame.

The perfect choice would be a Cotic Roadrat, but - tcha, Halfords. Cotic won't supply them to Halfords, and they a minium order quantity which means they won't give my LBS one (who accepts Halfords vouchers) either.

So, question is:

How can I get a Roadrat on the Halfords scheme?

OR, what's a good alternative? My LBS recomends a Focus Planet TR 3.0 which ticks all the boxes, except it's an alu frame. I'm leaning towards that, but anyone tried one out?
The On-one pompetino looks good, but it's too expensive for the CTW scheme.
There is a Saracen Clever Mike, but it's got a boring upright geometry, with too short a top tube, and likewise the Kona Dr Fine. I could get one and then swap the frame out for a Pompentino....

Any ideas?