diff --git a/ci/benchmarks/.benchmarks.yml b/ci/benchmarks/.benchmarks.yml
index 0ccd002e..f94312bf 100644
--- a/ci/benchmarks/.benchmarks.yml
+++ b/ci/benchmarks/.benchmarks.yml
@@ -10,12 +10,13 @@
   before_script:
     - pip3 install -e .
     - pip install litellm langchain transformers torch openai tqdm
-    - for var in $(compgen -e); do
+    - |
+      for var in $(compgen -e); do
         if [[ $var == CTF_* && -n ${!var} ]]; then
           export $var="${!var}"
         fi
       done
-    - curl http://localhost:11434/api/tags
+    - curl $OLLAMA_API_BASE/api/tags  # validate that ollama is running
   variables:
     OLLAMA_API_BASE: "http://localhost:8000"
     OPENROUTER_API_BASE: "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1"