What do Sir Bradley Wiggins and Wout van Aert have in common? They have both won elite time trials, raced at the highest level, and had some of the greatest successes in France. Beyond that, there isn't a huge amount to tie them together, apart from the fact both have been guessed to be a hidden identity on the odd television show The Masked Singer.
For the uninitiated, The Masked Singer is a celebrity singing competition-cum-hidden identity show, where various well-known - and less-known - faces dress up in extraordinary costumes and battle to win against one another; once they lose a vote, divided between the public and the judges, they are forced to reveal who they are. On the UK, it's on ITV; in Flanders, it's on VTM.
Sadly, it was not Wiggins who was pretending to be a rubbish bin on last year's UK version of the hit show, it was former snooker world champion Stephen Hendry. Obviously. However, on the Flemish version of the programme, it might still very much be Wout van Aert, fortunately for us.
All we know, as it is, is that a person (almost definitely a man) dressed as a giant squirrel (Eekhoorn in Nederlands) on Belgian television on Friday night, singing Song 2 by Blur. The clues are as follows: the description of a busy athlete from the Kempen (a northern part of Belgium) with two children, the voice, which apparently adds up to someone from Herentals, like Van Aert, and the build. There was also a reference to a rainbow jersey, something that Van Aert has won three time in cyclo-cross. Clearly, case closed.
I'm not sure if I could detect Wout van Aert in the giant squirrel singing Blur, but then I'm not Belgian and not tuned into his accent as much as I probably could be. Van Aert also feels like a huge coup for a Flemish celebrity show, given cycling's prominence in Belgium, but maybe they pay really well.
Fans on social media seem convinced, especially after spotting that the Belgian had uploaded some training rides to Strava in May this year with references to the squirrel outfit in the titles, notably "long tail", the squirrel emoji, "youhou" like in Song 2, and the dancer emoji too. This is hardly Sherlock Holmes-levels of mystery.
Of course, it could all be wrong, and Van Aert is merely enjoying an ordinary off-season, but it also would be fun if it was the nine-time Tour de France stage winner. After a seriously unfortunate year in which he crashed seriously twice, first at Dwars door Vlaanderen and then at the Vuelta a España, maybe he needs a bit of fun. Apparently we might find out on Friday! The tension!
He would not be the first cyclist to dress up on TV; in 2021 Nairo Quintana appeared on Colombia's version of The Masked Singer dressed as a chameleon.
Watch below and make your own mind up.
