Pro-cycling thread

His press officer apologised for any offence and said he “strongly stands against racism in any form.”

Ftfy

Simmons said that he still does not understand why people were upset
about his use of the Black hand emoji, or his reference to the “Bye
Felicia” quote.

“If I’m honest, no, not really. This whole concept of this digital
blackface, or whatever they want to call it, I had never even heard of
that, and I think the majority of the population hadn’t heard of it,”
Simmons said. “If this had been two months earlier, and not in the
middle of an election in the U.S., I think this would have been a
non-issue. This is really something new that I don’t fully understand,
and I think a lot of people don’t understand. Obviously, what I’ve
learned is to not do it again and to stay away from this type of
discussion. But, the whole why behind it, really is — I could never
have imagined this.”

Simmons also said he disagreed with the team’s decision to suspend
him.

So he might have apologised at the time, but didn't really mean it...

That doesn't mean he's an arsehole in all areas of his life obviously, but likewise he's not an all round good egg because he stopped when another human was in a serious accident. Shades of grey and all that.