The Lee Valley Velopark played host to Sir Bradley Wiggins as he broke the UCI hour record at the Stratford venue on Sunday.

Smashing the previous record set by fellow Briton Alex Dowsett, the 35-year-old rode 54.526km to further enhance his reputation as one of the sport’s greats.

Dowsett’s record was comfortably beaten by the former Tour de France champion as he rode almost 2km further than the 52.937km benchmark that he surpassed with 1min 42secs to spare.

The packed velodrome on Olympic Park, where 6,000 tickets were sold within ten minutes, roared Wiggins on during the ride which he described as “torturous”.

Despite the achievement, Wiggins fell short of his target of 221 laps as he completed 218. The record has now been broken five times in the last nine months.

The father-of-two won cycling’s pinnacle event, the Tour de France, in 2012 and has seven Olympic cycling medals, a record he shares with Sir Chris Hoy.