Did that sort of thing with the CTC a while back. Two hours to get around as many checkpoints as possible. The further, or hillier, locations were awarded more points with points deducted for time taken over the 2 hours. Route planning before starting out was certainly an advantage as there was no way of visiting all of the locations within the time, although raw speed helped as well. Approaching the finish I had to make the judgement as to whether I had enough time to ride the couple of miles out to the last checkpoint which I was keeping up my sleeve. I did, as it happened, and finished with a couple of minutes to spare.
All round good fun, and to do well you don't just need to ride fast but think about your route and speed, even if you are riding in your own backyard.