Michel Hessmann’s adverse dope test case has ended with the young German rider being sanctioned with seven-month ban from racing. Visma-Lease a Bike has confirmed the case has been concluded, adding the 23-year-old will not race for it again.
Jumbo Visma in August of last year said it had “been informed of a positive anti-doping test result” for Hessmann arising from an out-of-competition control on June 14th that year in Germany. It added at the time the “detected product” was “a diuretic medicine”.
Though he initially faced very serious consequences under German anti-doping laws, which can involve a criminal prosecution, it became clear at the start of this year his test result would not be treated as one on the upper end of the scale.
Instead, German authorities concluded they had found no evidence he intended to commit a criminal offence. And now Visma-Lease a Bike has confirmed the case has ended, with a seven-month ban that will enable the rider race again next spring, if he can secured a contract.
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"The German rider has reached a settlement with WADA, the world anti-doping agency," Visma-Lease a Bike has now said in a statement. "He will be allowed to race again from 14 March 2025. Hessmann has an expiring contract until 2024 and will therefore no longer ride for Team Visma-Lease a Bike.
"The rider was suspended by the team, after a minute amount of Chlortalidone was found in his urine during an out-of-competition control on 14 June 2023. NADA and WADA both concluded that it was plausible that Hessmann had taken a contaminated medicine such as paracetamol, ibuprofen or naproxen.
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"Earlier, German prosecutors therefore dismissed the case. In June 2024 NADA suspended the rider for four months, with a retroactive effect of three months, allowing him to return to action at the end of July.
"But WADA appealed, after which the rider and WADA reached a settlement to remain suspended until 14 March 2025. Michel Hessmann will therefore no longer compete for the team."
Around eight months ago, Visma-Lease a Bike team boss Richard Plugge suggested, to the Radio Cycling podcast, that Hessmann may have returned the test result due to contamination, though insisted all the team-issue supplements were tested.
Plugge said the test result “looks like something like pollution”, though he did not explain why he had come to that conclusion.
However, after carrying out an investigation last year, including searches at Hessmann’s home and seizing devices and other items for testing, the Freiburg Public Prosecutor’s Office said there was no evidence, or insufficient evidence, of intent on the rider’s part to commit a criminal offence.
That outcome, relating to the dismissal of any possible criminal process, was first reported by Dutch site Wielerflits in January.
