Movistar Team pick up former Visma star Michel Hessmann, suspended for doping until March

It has been rumoured for a while that Michel Hessman was going to land in Movistar Team and finally it seems that a deal has been agreed. On the UCI website, the German appears as a new signing for the Spanish World Tour outfit, despite the fact that at the moment, the 23-year-old former Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider is suspended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for doping until March 14. From then on, he will be able to compete again. The Teuton tested positive for a diuretic in June 2023.

The Visma team complained at the time about the rider's sanction, claiming that the positive test "for a minimal amount of chlorthalidone in his urine" did not merit the cyclist being suspended for so long. WADA initially sanctioned him in June 2024 for four months, after which WADA appealed and suspended him until the aforementioned March 14, 2025, when he will be able to race again.

The bodies that sanctioned him did not deny that the contamination could have come from an ibuprofen or a paracetamol, as indicated by the colleagues of Ciclo 21, but that did not prevent his sanction.

The German rider has not competed since the World Championships in Glasgow on August 6, 2023, where he represented his nation without finishing the race. A promising young rider, he finished third in the Tour de l'Avenir in 2022. In his only year at Visma as a professional he raced the Giro d'Italia, where he finished 33rd. He is a powerful and fast cyclist who, no doubt, arrives wrapped in controversy to Movistar Team.