Britain’s Sir Bradley Wiggins has confirmed that he will attempt to set a new hour record on 7 June at London’s Lee Valley VeloPark velodrome.

The four-time Olympic champion and world time trial champion will attempt to better Australian Rohan Dennis’ mark of 52.491 kilometres set in February.

"The hour record is a holy grail for cyclists," Wiggins said.

"It's been fought over tooth and nail by some of the greatest names in our sport for over a hundred years and it's time for me to have a crack at it.

"I like the idea of challenging myself and want to motivate people to do the same - so why not get your bike out of the shed and see how far you can go in an hour?"

Wiggins’ much-anticipated hour record attempt will be the latest in a string of attempts since the UCI created the new unified standard which allowed riders to tackle the hour on standard track pursuit machines.

Germany’s Jens Voigt was first to set a new benchmark of 51.115 kilometres in September 2014, which stood until Austria's Matthias Brandle extended it to 51.852 kilometres.

Alex Dowsett’s postponed attempt is set to take place on 2 May at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester.

Tickets for Wiggins’ attempt will go on sale at 10am on 17 April at Sky Tickets and a capacity crowd of 6000 are expected to cheer on the 2012 Tour de France winner. The event will also be broadcast live on Sky Sports.

UCI president Brian Cookson said, “I am thrilled to see that a rider of such calibre as Bradley Wiggins - an Olympic Champion and Tour de France winner - is attracted by the prospect of entering into the legend of the iconic UCI Hour Record.

“This is exactly what the UCI was hoping for, when modernising the rules of the event last year, allowing the use of up-to-date pursuit bikes and equipment. I'm convinced that Bradley will give his very best to set a very high mark for the UCI Hour Record.

“But such performance is never achieved easily, so I'm excited to see what he can do in what is one of the toughest challenges in our sport.”

Tickets are on sale from 10am on Friday at tickets.sky.com/cycling