Changes in the PBP departure time#
Since the procedure to confirm registrations for PBP was opened by the ACP, everybody with a pre-registration, or a completed registration, could log into the ACP website and change the departure time to any other slot available.
One could even change group, from 90 hours to 84 or 80 and vice-versa, if there are free slots on a different group.
My friends Dani and Ferreiro pre-registered for the 20:30 slot, while I pre-registered (and then confirmed my registration) for the 20:15 slot. Our friend Manolo was in the 17:45 slot and our friends from Astorga (sergio(s), Valentín and Saúl) were in the 18:30 slot.
We talked about it and our plan was to move as close as possible to the 18:00 slot, so we could start earlier. That would be better for our initial plan of riding the 600 km distance to Brest before having the first proper sleep stop. The earlier we start, the earlier we will arrive in Brest.
Since I confirmed my registration, I’ve been looking periodically at the page where they show information about the available slots, as some times some of them got available. If you are lucky - and quick - enough, you could grab a slot for you.
For example, a few days ago, I was looking at the list, when a slot at 19:15 was available. Quickly I edited my registration and changed the departure time to that slot, which made my previous slot at 20:15 free (and it was picked up by someone else in a few minutes).
Then, the ACP announced that on the 10th of June (today) at noon, they were going to free all the slots from those pre-registrations that hadn’t registered yet.
Discussion in several chats and forums with experienced randonneurs suggested that this would mean lots and lots of slots available, so we should be able to move to an earlier slot without much trouble.
So, at 11:55 this morning, I was sitting in front of my computer, ACP account page loaded in a web browser, waiting.
At 12:00 I reloaded the site, expecting it to take ages to load (how many people would be reloading this same page exactly at the same time). Surprisingly it did load quite fast… but there were no free slots available.
I kept reloading the page for a while, but no free slots.
This weekend, I had to help my wife moving stuff from the old place where her business (language academy) was, to a new place she bought for it. So I brought the laptop with me and kept it open on a table, reloading the ACP website every once in a while.
12:30 - no free slots
12:45 - no free slots
13:00 - no free slots
13:30 - no free slots
14:00 - no free slots
Meanwhile, I was also chatting with Dani and the others, keeping them in the loop. We all were wondering what was happening with those slots.
At 14:30 we went for lunch, to a restaurant nearby, with our daughters and my parents, and at 15:00 I checked one last time, but no luck.
So, I decided to forget about it and check it later in the afternoon.
And then, around 15:30, I got a message on my phone, from one of the multiple randonneuring groups I’m a member of in whatsapp. Someone said that there were lots of slots, he just changed himself into some other slot.
I quickly picked up my laptop and, while it was loading my ACP account page, I sent messages to all the others - “NOW, SLOTS ARE AVAILABLE, QUICK”
A few minutes - and 3 phone calls - later, everybody had moved to the 17:45 slot. The same our friend Manolo was since the beginning.
Well, everybody except our friends from Astorga, who had their departure time already fixed and weren’t able to change it anymore. But it is only a 45 minutes difference, I’m sure we will meet along the way.