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.”
