ALISTAIR Griffin is experiencing his highest-profile week since competing against Alex Parks in the final of BBC1's talent show in Fame Academy in 2003.

This Monday, the 36-year-old York singer-songwriter released the first official anthem for Le Grand Départ , The Road, recorded as a duet with Girls Aloud's Kimberley Walsh to accompany the Tour de France's Yorkshire start.

As the international cyclists gather in God's Own Country, the single will be played across fan parks, spectator hubs and a series of live performances including tonight's opening ceremony and riders' presentation at Leeds First Direct Arena, where he will be joined by Bradford singer and dancer Kimberley, and the Grand Départy at the Huntington Stadium in York tomorrow at 7pm.

"Russell Watson, fireworks: it's a pop concert meets Last Night At The Proms tomorrow," says Alistair, in a break between acoustic sets at another engagement last Thursday at the New Lights exhibition at Swinton Park, near Masham.

"I'm not quite sure where I fit in with the Grand Départy [Westlife's Kieran Egan, Altered Images, Blow Monkeys, Brother Beyond and The Overtones are on the bill too], but I'll bring out all the hit [2003's Bring It On], plus Just Drive, The One, The Road," he says. "Then I'm playing at the Harrogate Stray on Saturday , singing The Road again at the fan park."

The single already has received airplay on BBC Radio 2.

"Chris Evans played it first on his breakfast show; Graham Norton played it, and I'm doing lots of TV this week," says Alistair.

You may have seen him already on Breakfast on BBC1 on Monday or Sunrise on Sky News yesterday; he is appearing on This Morning on ITV too and tonight's opening ceremony for Le Tour is being covered live on ITV4.

Could such exposure lead to The Road reaching the peaks of the singles chart on Sunday? "With sports-connected songs, it's unpredictable, but the higher up the chart, the better, though it's more about the legacy of it being the first ever official song for Le Grand Départ," says Alistair.

He was drawn to The Road as his symbol of the Tour in Yorkshire by the prospect of cyclists climbing the county's most famous hill, Buttertubs Pass in the Yorkshire Dales. "I picked that as the image for the arrival of the Tour as it's an iconic hill for cycling fans and people who know Yorkshire," says Alistair, a cycling enthusiast himself.

If Buttertubs Pass encapsulates Yorkshire, so too does Kimberley Walsh, as she proved on BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing.

"I'd left space to make the song a duet and I wanted a Yorkshire girl to do it, so I drew up a shortlist of one. So we approached only Kimberley, and I'm very pleased she said 'Yes', " says Alistair. "She brings glamour to the party and the song suited her down to the ground. It's a song outside of her comfort zone but she really nailed it."

As soon as the Tour peloton, the yellow bikes and the woolly jumper bunting disappear from view, Alistair will be releasing his new album, From Nowhere, on Monday on Elbow Grease Records.

"It's a collection of lots of my songs that have been used on TV: What If [from the BBC coverage of Andy Murray's Wimbledon triumph last summer]; a new version of Sky Sports motor racing anthem, Just Drive, where we've added a string quartet and female vocals," says Alistair, "I worked with a band called Cattle And Cane who are very much into vocal harmonies, so I asked Helen Hammill from the band to sing it with me.

"The Road is on there, with Kimberley; The One with Leddra Chapman; and I've just snuck a new one on there called That Day Will Come. Most of the album was recorded on the farm at Strensall, with a little bit at Chairworks in Castleford, and I'm very happy with it, like the big strings on Blown Away."

The album title comes from Middlesbrough fan Alistair's footballing activities.

"I was a bit thin on the ground for a title, but then I remembered I was in this little Premier League All Stars cup final, and when I had my Roy of the Rovers moment, scoring a goal, the commentator said, 'Alistair Griffin, from nowhere'. Perfect title!"

Amid his hectic whirl of promotional activities for The Road and Le Grand Depart, Alistair has left his Sunday diary blank for Le Tour. Appropriately , he will be taking to the road. "I'm going to get on my bike at six in the morning and ride for two hours," he says. "Wherever I finish at 8am, that's where I'll watch the race."