Death threats, insults and disqualification as an emoji in Strava post sparks controversy at Tour of Mentougou

The second edition of the Tour of Mentougou descended into controversy after Spanish rider Mario Aparicio (Burgos Burpellet BH) was ejected for making "inappropriate remarks on his personal social media platform" after the opening stage on Sunday, according to the race organisers, who are demanding a public apology.

Aparicio uploaded his file from the first stage to Strava with "E1 tour mentougou" with two emoji: a pig and the Chinese flag.

What followed was a shocking storm of comments on his Strava profile and other social media platforms toward Aparicio, with users posting insults and even sending death threats.

The organisers moved to disqualify Aparicio on grounds that "the content of these remarks violated the spirit of sportsmanship, damaged the image of the race, and caused a serious negative impact", according to their statement.

While Aparicio's team contends the post was an innocent dig at his teammate Carlos Garcia, who won the first stage, according to El Mundo, Chinese internet users who live in Spain noted that the word 'cochino' [pig] is often used as a derogatory term (eg. filthy pig) or simply to mean 'dirty'.

"Mario posted the pig emoji as a joke toward his teammate who had won the stage, something without malice and unrelated to the Chinese people," the Burgos Burpellet BH team said to El Mundo.

"Just an unfortunate coincidence. However, people saw it and took it out of context, misinterpreting it since the Chinese flag appeared next to it."

While Aparicio left the country, his teammates continued to dominate the UCI 2.2-ranked race, winning the first and third stages of the three-day race and sweeping the overall podium with Clément Alleno taking the victory, García finishing second and Antonio Angulo in third.

Alleno won the points classification, García the mountains classification and Burgos BH also won the teams classification.