diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 456604c..6d983fd 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 ## 0.3.0 / ...
 
+  * BUG: The Age response header was not being set properly when a stale
+    entry was validated. This would result in Age values that exceeded
+    the freshness lifetime in responses.
   * BUG: A cached entry in a heap meta store could be unintentionally
     modified by request processing since the cached objects were being
     returned directly. The result was typically missing/incorrect header
diff --git a/TODO b/TODO
index dc05255..5e7e1f6 100644
--- a/TODO
+++ b/TODO
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
   - BUG: Response body written to cache each time validation succeeds
     (actually, I'm not positive whether this is happening or not but
     it looks like it is).
-  - BUG: Age should always be 0 when a request is validated.
   - Are we doing HEAD properly?
   - liberal, conservative, sane caching configs
   - Sample app
diff --git a/lib/rack/cache/core.rb b/lib/rack/cache/core.rb
index 280973a..373da4e 100644
--- a/lib/rack/cache/core.rb
+++ b/lib/rack/cache/core.rb
@@ -172,6 +172,7 @@ def perform_validate
         trace "cache entry valid"
         @response = entry.dup
         @response.headers.delete('Age')
+        @response.headers.delete('Date')
         @response.headers['X-Origin-Status'] = '304'
         %w[Date Expires Cache-Control Etag Last-Modified].each do |name|
           next unless value = original_response.headers[name]
diff --git a/lib/rack/cache/headers.rb b/lib/rack/cache/headers.rb
index a4ef441..185d6a9 100644
--- a/lib/rack/cache/headers.rb
+++ b/lib/rack/cache/headers.rb
@@ -148,13 +148,12 @@ def no_store?
     # The date, as specified by the Date header. When no Date header is present,
     # set the Date header to Time.now and return.
     def date
-      @date ||=
-        if date = headers['Date']
-          Time.httpdate(date)
-        else
-          headers['Date'] = now.httpdate unless headers.frozen?
-          now
-        end
+      if date = headers['Date']
+        Time.httpdate(date)
+      else
+        headers['Date'] = now.httpdate unless headers.frozen?
+        now
+      end
     end
 
     # The age of the response.
diff --git a/test/headers_test.rb b/test/headers_test.rb
index da48606..4cf4d34 100644
--- a/test/headers_test.rb
+++ b/test/headers_test.rb
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ class MockResponse < Rack::MockResponse
 
 describe 'Rack::Cache::Headers' do
   before :each do
-    @now = Time.now
+    @now = Time.httpdate(Time.now.httpdate)
     @res = MockResponse.new(200, {'Date' => @now.httpdate}, '')
     @one_hour_ago = Time.httpdate((Time.now - (60**2)).httpdate)
   end
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ class MockResponse < Rack::MockResponse
 
 describe 'Rack::Cache::ResponseHeaders' do
   before :each do
-    @now = Time.now
+    @now = Time.httpdate(Time.now.httpdate)
     @one_hour_ago = Time.httpdate((Time.now - (60**2)).httpdate)
     @one_hour_later = Time.httpdate((Time.now + (60**2)).httpdate)
     @res = MockResponse.new(200, {'Date' => @now.httpdate}, '')
@@ -89,6 +89,13 @@ class MockResponse < Rack::MockResponse
       @res.extend Rack::Cache::ResponseHeaders
       @res.date.should.be.close Time.now, 1
     end
+    it 'returns the correct date when the header is modified directly' do
+      @res = MockResponse.new(200, { 'Date' => @one_hour_ago.httpdate }, '')
+      @res.extend Rack::Cache::ResponseHeaders
+      @res.date.should.be == @one_hour_ago
+      @res.headers['Date'] = @now.httpdate
+      @res.date.should.be == @now
+    end
   end
 
   describe '#expires_at' do