This is the first time I changed the chain since the bike was new...
The bike has been ridden a few hundred miles by a friend of mine but I
can't see how, even if he used the big ring exclusively, that the big
ring could have worn out that fast... Aren't chain rings supposed to
last tens of thousands of miles? And even if it did wear out, why isn't
anything else ruined, like the small ring or the cassette? The bike is
an 05 model... We're not talking about a bike with 20-30,000 miles...

I only use the 18, 17, 16, 15, 14 and 13 cogs with the small ring...
Those gears are all I need where I live... That range covers me from 0
to 25 miles per hour... If I ever go faster than that I just coast or
spin out a bit... I'm a new rider so I am still trying to develop my
spin... When I started riding last summer I rode in the big ring
exclusively because I didn't know better... I also have a lot more
cardiovascular ability than leg strength so I trade big gears for high
cadence... I've ridden 51 centuries this year so far (I have a lot of
free time!) and all but a handful of those, from when I first started
out in January, are under 6 hours solo...

Even if I wanted to change the size of the front rings, it is (I
think!) a proprietary design... I could swap the whole deal out for a
"Hollowgram" carbon compact crank at great expense... I've emailed
Cannondale repeatedly to ask them if I can use ordinary Campagnolo
chain rings but I have never received a reply about that...

To be honest, for my usage patterns, this bike and its gearing suits me
fine...