diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index f3dd07fca2c9dbe34b779908afad4f0d05de93b1..8c5d81e59bdc9e880ec2f64f84be614f051beab7 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -1240,6 +1240,7 @@ test-long-self-test:
 
     ### switch to main
     - git checkout main
+    - git pull
     - echo "Building reference codec at commit $(git rev-parse HEAD)"
 
     ### build main (ref) binaries