TOUR·KINETIC

Movistar · 2026 Tour de France
Engine-room domestique for flats and crosswinds, Tour debutant
Michel Hessmann

Once one of Jumbo–Visma's brightest German prospects, Hessmann saw his career derailed by a positive test for the diuretic chlortalidone in 2023 — anti-doping authorities accepted contaminated over-the-counter painkillers as the plausible cause, and he served a back-dated 21-month ban until March 2025.

Michel Hessmann paper-collage portrait in the 2026 Movistar kit

Once one of Jumbo–Visma's brightest German prospects, Hessmann saw his career derailed by a positive test for the diuretic chlortalidone in 2023 — anti-doping authorities accepted contaminated over-the-counter painkillers as the plausible cause, and he served a back-dated 21-month ban until March 2025. Movistar threw him a lifeline and he has repaid it, earning a contract through 2027. At this Tour he makes his debut and completes his Grand Tour set after the Giro and Vuelta.

Palmarès

  • 3rd overall Tour de l'Avenir (2022)
  • German U23 time trial champion (2021)
  • 33rd Giro d'Italia (2023)
  • German junior time trial champion (2018)
Cut-out factBefore focusing on the road he was German U23 cross-country mountain bike champion and a European MTB team-relay champion in 2020.

The squad

Riding the 2026 Tour with Cian Uijtdebroeks, Pablo Castrillo, Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda, Raúl García Pierna, Nelson Oliveira, Javier Romo, Einer Rubio — see the full Movistar team page.

Portrait: AI paper-collage render (gpt-image-2) after a reference photograph — source: Wikimedia Commons, author: Günter Seggebäing, Coesfeld, license: CC BY-SA 3.0. A fan project — not affiliated with the Tour de France or A.S.O.