Triathlon World Championships: Vicky Holland on Hamburg and 'lost' Olympics

It is nearly six months since Holland last raced - and won - a World Cup event

As they waited for the air horn to mark the start, Vicky Holland turned from the glinting Coral Sea to her fellow triathletes.

"I remember saying to the other girls around me, 'we might not get to do this again for a long time, so let's make the most of it'," she said.

Holland certainly did.

She won March's Mooloolaba World Cup event, her gruelling winter training bearing fruit four months out from the expected start of the Tokyo Olympics.

Immediately after the race, with coronavirus cases multiplying globally, the International Triathlon Union (ITU) suspended the sport until 30 April.

It seemed dramatic at the time. It was not nearly drastic enough. It is only this weekend that the world's elite triathletes compete again.

Those who are able and willing are in the German city Hamburg for the sole surviving race of a World Series that should have featured seven.

With less than two weeks' notice, the ITU has turned Hamburg into a one-off World Championships. Holland's approach is more low-key than Grand Final, however.

"For me it doesn't feel like a World Championships," she told BBC Sport.

"A fair few of the athletes feel the same. It is great that I get to go and race and I feel really grateful to the ITU and Hamburg for putting on a race.

"But if feels wrong to consider it a World Championships when so many athletes around the world have not had a fair shake at it.

"There is no pressure for me. I am going to get a race in and race the best I can, which is, in many ways, the same attitude that I had in Mooloolaba when we knew that things were brewing."

Holland's team-mate Non Stanford (centre) won the Hamburg race last year

Defending champion Katie Zaferes has made the trip from the United States. Flora Duffy, the two-time winner from Bermuda, is on the start list. Holland's compatriots Jess Learmonth and Georgia Taylor-Brown, ranked second and third in the world, are also there.

Others, including Holland's former housemate and last year's winner of the Hamburg race Non Stanford, are not.

With restrictions varying between countries, it is hard to predict what shape the field are in for Saturday's race.

"Many athletes around the world have not had a fair shake at it," Holland said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with a surprise winner - whoever has put the most time into training during lockdown and dealt with it the best. It is a very strange situation where virtually the whole field has not raced together in a year."

It may also be whoever copes best with the race's own restrictions.

Masks are a must-wear pre-race, the usual athletes briefing is now conducted virtually and athletes are encouraged to be "self-sufficient", with less support staff on hand.

Holland's fiance Rhys Davey is also her coach. However, unable to get access to the race site on race day, he is staying back in the home near Bath, keeping their dog Winnie company.

Now 34, former world champion and Olympic bronze medallist Holland is happy going solo.

"As a relatively experienced athlete I don't feel too upset about the prospect of going to a race on my own," she added.

"If something goes wrong pre-race there are still people around to assist you, but really on race day we are pretty self-sufficient anyway, doing our own recce, warm-up and race preparation. I think it will be absolutely fine."

The bigger mental challenge to overcome has been the postponement of the Olympics.

Holland says she was "really quite devastated" when, just 10 days after her win on the Queensland coast in March, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the announcement.

"At some point you almost have to grieve for a race you are not going to do, and the Olympics is not just a race - it is a huge pinnacle of a career," she said.

"I had planned that last year was going to be my last big winter of training. I am towards the end of my career and the off-season was all in for one big last hurrah.

"It was hard to accept that all that work would not be put to good use and that I would be doing it all again, with the added complication that the goalposts haven't just been moved; they have been taken out of sight."

Holland locked down and counted her blessings. She enjoyed her garden, the Somerset countryside and more time with Rhys and Winnie. She baked bread, learned French and cut training back to a minimum.

She hopes Hamburg "puts a full stop on a very strange year". Then, after that false start, she will begin again on the final, potentially glorious, chapter of her career.