Domestique Events Team
Our team is your team.
When your mission is to serve, to guide, and to inspire, you need the best people driving your vision forward.
Richard Fries, Co-Founder
With more than 45 years experience in cycling, Richard has been a racer, commuter, advocate, journalist and event announcer. He first organized a cycling event in 1980. He has helped produce more than a dozen UCI World Championships, more than 30 USA Cycling National Championships and countless other events including the Sea Otter Classic, Armed Forces Cycling Classic, the Providence Cyclo-cross Festival, the Pedro’s Mountain Bike Festival and countless others. As an advocate he served as the executive director for MassBike, the lead speaker at the National Bicycle Summit and as director of the Bicycle Leadership Conference. Since 2007 he has produced dozens of charity cycling events for Best Buddies International He lives in Arlington, Mass.
Rob Cant, Operations
Rob Cant has worked in myriad roles in the bike industry over the past decade. After starting on the sales floor he has worked for several shops from a non-profit to a custom-only boutique. He has held positions in fitting, managed a Rapha pop-up, managed events for MassBike, and served as a ride leader for the Best Buddies Challenge. He currently works for a nonprofit producing events for adaptive athletes.At our events you can usually find Rob working behind the scenes to make our venues and food the best they can be for our riders. Sometimes he’s even allowed on the microphone! Rob lives in Cambridge.
Ben Guist, Athlete Services
Ben has spent more than five years working in nonprofit development and event production. An avid runner since 2014, he didn’t start turning pedals until he joined Best Buddies International and worked with Richard Fries. Ben was instantly hooked on bikes after his first time experiencing one of Richard’s “perambulations”, which included navigating a section of defunct railway in total darkness to get home. “Nobody ever talks about the ride when everything went right,” he learned. A wizard with registration, customer relation management software and fundraising tools, Ben currently works for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and manages the Bike MS: Cape Cod Getaway, a two-day event. He lives in Brighton, Mass. with his wife, Melissa, who regularly and ruthlessly kicks his ass on the bike. Ben and Melissa have completed a 50-Mile ultramarathon and an IRONMAN 70.3 together and look forward to knocking out their first full IRONMAN 140.6 in 2023.
Bob Ludwig, Route Whisperer
A lifelong outdoors enthusiast, Bob Ludwig has raced bikes for 30 plus years. He’s spent many of those years as a team manager, race and event promoter and general bike bum. He competed at the semi-pro level focused on the single speed category. Having grown up on a farm his family settled in the 1700s, Bob lives in the center of New England, Ellington, Conn. From there he has explored myriad roads and trails, many of which have yet to show up on proper maps. His own farm has been the venue for mountain bike events. He served as part of the fabled Super Cup crew that elevated American cyclo-cross to international standards. His professional life has been all about public service, including service as a first responder and rescue diver. Recently retired from a state job working in inspectional services, Bob has become passionate about route reconnaissance. He takes great pleasure in helping to organize events that create lifetime memories
Eddie Medina, Media Coordinator
Joel “Ed” Medina is a Pulitzer prize-winning former journalist, digital pioneer, and communications expert with more than two decades of multimedia storytelling. He’s an avid cyclist, outdoors enthusiast and adventure lover. A native of Oklahoma, Ed covered stories big and small for the Associated Press before moving to New England to join the staff of The Boston Globe staffer. Ed led coverage of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, worked on the Spotlight team’s coverage of the priest sex abuse scandal, and being on the field when the Red Sox “broke the curse” to win the 2004 World Series. He developed Boston.com’s breaking news desk, and several immersive visual technologies. He transferred from the news industry in 2016 to provide content marketing for private clients and documentary services for nonprofits. He also provided coverage to countless cycling events in the Northeast. Surfing, ice climbing, fly fishing, rock climbing and cycling has drawn Ed all across North America. As a charity rider he joined top pros to complete several editions of Tim Johnson’s People for Bikes rides. He also serves as a Domestique for the Best Buddies Challenge rides. Ed lives in Lexington, Mass.
Perri Mertens, Graphic/Web Designer
Perri’s cycling career began the moment she threw her leg over the banana seat of her very first bike, the “Misty Rose.” An excitement that led to BMX racing as a kid, being a bicycle messenger in Boston throughout her 20s, followed by many years of racing road and cyclocross on the national elite level. In 2017, she joined 4 others and rode their bicycles across the USA on dirt roads in 84 days, raising funds and awareness for an organization that is pushing back powerfully against America’s high school drop-out crisis, and its disproportionate effect on our most disadvantaged students. Today she continues her passion for bicycles, by primarily riding gravel roads and seeking adventure in the unknown. When not riding bicycles or hiking mountains, Perri is a freelance graphic/web designer living in Center Harbor, New Hampshire.
Barbara Saive, Registration & Results
Cycling has provided Barbara with more than 23 years of riding, racing, and event production. She has more than years’ experience working on races at the national and international level. She worked 2002-2015 as a race promoter, UCI registrar and timing coordinator and as a UCI Official. Barbara worked with promoters of events which gave her exposure to all aspects of race promotion, including officials, riders, sponsors, media, photographers, and the all-important volunteers. Having worked national and local criterium, road and stage races in the Midwest, she was named Official of the Year in 2013. As a UCI registrar and timing official, Barbara worked with top UCI Commissars for the UCI Worlds Cyclocross Championships, National and Masters Cyclocross Championships, and many other international, national and regional series in cyclo-cross. As a charity cyclist, Barbara has raised funds for Best Buddies International, The Multiple Sclerosis Society, Bike to Beat Cancer, Breast Cancer Society, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and the Leukemia Society. She lives in Greensboro, N.C.