Several reports of a black sports bike travelling “well in excess” of the 110km/h speed limit in the highway’s southbound lanes near Jugiong were made to police around 10.25am on Sunday.

The rider was said to have had an L plate tied to the backpack he was wearing.

Within half an hour, a highway patrol crew came across a bike and rider matching the descriptions, both parked by the side of the dual carriageway near the Coolac bypass.

The rider was asleep beside the bike and it took officers several attempts to rouse the 19-year-old Tumut man from his roadside slumber.

“(He) admitted to riding just prior to being spoken to by police and that he had been consuming alcohol all night in Canberra before commencing riding to Tumut,” police said.

After producing a learner motorcycle licence and returning a positive breath test at the roadside, the young man arrested and taken to Gundagai police station.

There he allegedly returned a breath analysis of .152 – more than three times the legal limit of a fully-licenced rider – and was charged with high-range drink-riding.

Learners have a limit of zero.

The rider’s licence was suspended on the spot and he will face Gundagai court on May 17.