Fragility in the clone step in pip release pipeline

We get a stochastic failure in the clone step on the pip release pipeline (mainly observed for mac, can't rule out others yet) <img width="1957" height="393" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e2fee93f-950a-45f5-85d7-6c2c07f6141d" /> Much like #419, restarting the failed jobs resolves the issue - so it seems to be transient.