Britain’s Jonathan Brownlee says it would be strange without his brother and Olympic champion Alistair as he prepares to begin his 2015 campaign alone.
Alistair will miss Saturday’s World Triathlon Series opener
in Abu Dhabi after injuring his ankle in training.
A
or
are two of the options Alistair is considering post Rio 2016.
“It would be a strange triathlon world without Alistair,” Jonathan said.
“It would be a lot easier for a start!”
“I wouldn’t know what to do really, not having him there to beat. It would be very, very different, but times change don’t they?”
Alistair Brownlee will be missing from the start-line at the first of the series’ 10 events in 2015 and is also a doubt for the following races in Auckland and the Gold Coast.
Jonathan Brownlee has been training with rides around Abu Dhabi’s Formula 1 circuit
However, defending champion Javier Gomez will line up alongside Jonathan in Abu Dhabi.
The Spaniard
clinched his fourth world title in 2014
– matching the record total amassed by Britain’s Simon Lessing during the 1990s – despite being beaten by Alistair Brownlee in four of the five races they competed in together.
“One thing that Javier has done is race the early races well,” added Jonathan in an interview with BBC Sport.
“Hopefully this year we can start well and not be on the back foot and have to catch up.”
Jonathan warmed up for the season’s start by clocking a time of exactly 14 minutes to finish third in the
and is a three-time world champion over the sprint distance that will be raced in the Middle East.
Gomez, by contrast, failed to finish in the top three in any of the sprint-distance races in last year’s series.
Commonwealth champion Jodie Stimpson leads the British challenge in the women’s race, with former world champion Non Stanford not expected to make her return from injury before the series event in Cape Town at the end of April.