The Visma-Lease a Bike team have revealed that Michel Hessmann has been given a four-month suspension by the NADA German anti-doping agency after they accepted that it was plausible that Hessmann’s positive test for Chlortalidone was sparked by a contaminated medicine such as paracetamol, ibuprofen or naproxen.
As a matter of principle, under anti-doping regulations, athletes are ultimately responsible for what is found in their bodies and anti-doping controls. In this case, NADA believed Hessmann's explanation and gave the 23-year-old German rider “the lightest possible suspension of 4 months with a retroactive effect of three months.”
That was accepted by Hessmann. He faces a final month of out action and Visma-Lease a Bike said they “will consider how to proceed” without confirming if Hessmann will be reintegrated into the team.
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Hessmann tested positive for the banned substance on June 14 2023 in an out-of-competition control, two weeks after being part of Primož Roglič’s Giro d’Italia winning team.
He was removed from the team’s racing programme when the news broke in August and has awaited a definitive verdict on his case from the German Anti-Doping Authority in silence.
Doping is a crime in Germany but Hessman was cleared of any wrongdoing in January. Charges were reportedly dropped after the prosecutor's office said that "there is no or insufficient suspicion of a criminal offence."
