So when doing the coffee culture tour, it can be as little as 1 kilometre till the next stop, averaging about 6km, or a maximum of ~20 km (Airport to Rolleston) which can be broken up as Airport/Hornby/Templeton/Rolleston, about 6 km per piece.

Or Le Race can be broken into warmup on Colombo, up Dyers Pass, Summit Road, down the bastard, across the flat, round the corner to Little River, up to hilltop, turnoff to Pidgeon Bay, little Akaloa, Le Bons Bay, Okains Bay, Cabstand, and down Long Bays.
That’s 13 segments, averaging 8 km each vs a ~100 km ride, which sounds daunting.

And sometimes I do exactly the opposite. Focus on the destination, and suddenly I’m 10 km down the road. Was thinking about getting to Rangiora once, and without really noticing I was already in Hornby. The roads we ride a lot can be quite “short” when not really focussing on them.