Van Dijk is due to make her attempt on May 23 at the Velodrome Suisse in Grenchen.

The current record of 48.405 kilometres was set at the Velodrome on September 30 last year by Britain's Joscelin Lowden, beating the 48.007km set by Vittoria Bussi of Italy in September 2018.

Lowden's effort was the fifth time the hour record has been broken since the modernisation of the UCI's rules in 2014.

The 35-year-old van Dijk is looking forward to having the opportunity to become the sixth rider to set the furthest distance.

"This has been a dream of mine for a very long time," van Dijk said.

"The hour record is something that I have always said I wanted to do one day and now that day is finally here.

"I get butterflies in my stomach when I think about doing it, a mix of excitement and nerves which is normal.

"You are always just on the edge with big challenges, and this is a huge challenge, so it is going to be exciting and frightening at the same time.

"We are still in the process of getting everything prepared for the big day and, of course, I want to continue racing well through all the remaining Spring Classics.

"This means my focus has not been exclusively on the hour record but that will change by May."

Van Dijk is still early in her preparations for the hour record attempt, and acknowledged the scale of her task.

"As we haven’t tested the full set up yet, I don’t know exactly what kind of watts I will need to achieve but the aim will just be to try to go as fast as I can for the full 60 minutes," she commented.

"Of course, it won’t be an easy task because I have a lot of respect for the record set by Joss [Lowden].

"She did a really great job and set a high benchmark to reach, 48.4km, so it’s certainly going to be a very very tough hour."

The time trial specialist competes for UCI Women's WorldTeam Trek-Segafredo.

She has won six gold medals at the UCI Road World Championships, including in the women's time trial, as well as the scratch title at the Track World Championships in 2008.