Jumbo Visma team boss Richard Plugge - who was critical of Groupama-FDJ riders having a beer on the Tour de France rest day - has said his team needs to examine itself in the wake of its young rider Michel Hessmann's adverse test result for a banned substance.
The 22-year-old underwent an out-of-competition test in Germany in June which "detected" a "diuretic medicine", Jumbo Visma said in a statement last month. News of that result was followed by a dominant display by the Jumbo Visma team at La Vuelta, where its riders finished 1-2-3 in the final general classification, sparking innuendo in some quarters in the media and on social media.
Plugge has now written a column in the new autumn issue of RIDE Magazine, partially addressing the Hessmann test result - though the process against him has not yet been completed. Plugge has claimed the team goes to extreme efforts to combat doping, and even accidental dope test results, including batch testing ever medicine and supplement for contaminants before a rider is allowed consume it.
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“For the first time in ten years, we received the message that a rider from our team, Michel Hessmann , had taken a positive doping test. We have to look in the mirror ourselves, are we doing everything right?" Plugge writes in RIDE Magazine.
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“Everyone involved in and with our organisation must be aware of everything (about the Hessmann case). Germany has a doping law, so the public prosecutor's office is automatically involved. Criminal law has the presumption of innocence, while disciplinary law reasons the other way around.
"It is up to the athlete to prove that he has done nothing wrong. If the test is carried out properly, there are two flavors, either it is conscious, or it is contamination from a supplement or other medicine. It is therefore mandatory within our team to only use supplements and medicines that have been batch checked for doping substances, to minimise the risk of contamination. Many products contain remnants of other products.
“In short, an athlete cannot simply take a supplement, drug or energy drink without knowing whether it has been tested beforehand. There can be a doping control 365 days a year, the athlete must be sharp every day. That is part of cycling policy. Riders are checked between thirty and 150 times per year. That is good and should remain that way. We stand for fair sport in which talents cross swords on equal grounds.”
Hessmann - who finished 3rd in Tour de l'Avenir last year and was riding for the Jumbo Visma World Tour squad this year - has been suspended by the team pending the outcome of the anti-doping process now underway into him.
