diff --git a/tools/internal_ci/helper_scripts/prepare_build_macos_rc b/tools/internal_ci/helper_scripts/prepare_build_macos_rc
index 23619ecbb8b..2ecd39465d4 100644
--- a/tools/internal_ci/helper_scripts/prepare_build_macos_rc
+++ b/tools/internal_ci/helper_scripts/prepare_build_macos_rc
@@ -48,6 +48,10 @@ set -ex
 
 # cocoapods
 export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
+# pre-fetch cocoapods master repo with HEAD only
+mkdir -p ~/.cocoapods/repos
+git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git ~/.cocoapods/repos/master
+
 time pod repo update  # needed by python
 
 # python