Randall Butler- Crew-At- Large

Randall joined us in 2003, just in time to join the PEZ-Crew reporting from the World Championships in Hamilton. At the daily press conferences, “Randall Butler from PezCycling News” somehow managed to ask the first question.

A rider for many years, Randall’s real love of the sport is the Grand Tours, and he can usually be found in France each July. “I’m fortunate to have ridden many celebrated routes of the Grand Tours. This gives me an insight into the races and a respect for the riders that is rare in the media. I still ride them every chance I get.” (Note the passion in his face in pic at left, taken on Alpe d'Huez.)

An accomplished photographer, we first met Randall when he submitted a few of his TDF shots to PEZ. “I don’t go to bike races to take pictures. I try to capture the drama, emotion and festivity that make these events larger than life. I do so with reverence for the legend and lore of the courses. After all, they have longer and more celebrated lives than we.”

He may be no poet, but still poetic, Randall has “…learned to suffer for a good photograph. I have no moto, just a velo. I ride the climbs under blistering heat. I pray I won’t be struck in a mountaintop lightning storm. I wait at the roadside shivering in the hail, hands too cold to operate the camera. This way I understand how the riders have suffered. They have my respect. I try to tell their story.”

“Above all, I love the Tour de France. It is a lifetime lived in three weeks. The tour is bigger than any rider, and bigger than all of us. In turn, the myth is bigger than the tour, but the tour is no myth. It has sustained local controversy and world war. I like to say ‘dogs bark but the tour rolls on’. This is why we cyclists live for the tour.”

Fave Bike: "a De Rosa (or two)"
Fave Camera: “a Nikon”
Fave Guitar: “a Fender Strat – cycling rocks!”

When not riding, Randall is a chartered financial analyst and a certified management accountant with extensive experience in media and sports. He’s available to advise professional athletes and professional sports teams on business matters.