How to cycle faster and increase your average speed

“What’s a typical average speed for a cyclist?”; “How can I increase my average speed when cycling?”; “Average cycling speed by age”; “Beginner average cycling speed”: it doesn’t take a deep dive into Google’s ‘Autocorrect’ (or, indeed any internet forum), to realise that cyclists of all levels are interested in benchmarking and building upon their pace. 

Even the most inexpensive cycling computers will show your max, current and average speed as you’re rolling along. But once you have that information, how can you see where you sit, compared to other riders? And, how can you up the numbers?