I had a triple on my first bike, a hybrid road bike. It was the Sora group, a flat bar bike. I was nervous about giving up the triple since everything around here is really hilly.
I bought a Fuji road bike with SRAM Rival. I don't miss the triple at all. The triple's granny gear was 30-25, and the compact on my road bike is 34-25. The difference is not that noticable. If you are looking at SRAM Apex, I think you can get up to a 30 or so on the cassette, so with a compact crank (50/43) you should have plenty of gearing. A couple observations,
-The triple doesn't really have that much more gear range, because a lot of the gears overlap. Meaning on the smallest ring, only the biggest 3 or so cogs on the back give you something you can't get with the middle ring. And on the big ring, only the smallest 2 or 3 cogs get you something you can't get on the middle ring.
- My road bike shifts WAY crisper, more positive, etc. than my triple. Most of it is probably due to the increased quality of components.
Again, I have no problem with a triple, when I started out it was perfect. 95% or more of my riding was in the middle ring, that was good from about 8 mph up to 25 or so mph. But I don't ever plan on going back to a triple. If I ever need more than what I have now, I'm going to buy an Apex rear der. and cassette.