diff --git a/cluster/cluster.sh b/cluster/cluster.sh
index e2f2fa776..9e481881c 100644
--- a/cluster/cluster.sh
+++ b/cluster/cluster.sh
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 export KUBEVIRT_PROVIDER=${KUBEVIRT_PROVIDER:-'k8s-1.25'}
-export KUBEVIRTCI_TAG='2211021552-8cca8c0'
+export KUBEVIRTCI_TAG=${KUBEVIRTCI_TAG:-2211021552-8cca8c0}
 
 KUBEVIRTCI_REPO='https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirtci.git'
 # The CLUSTER_PATH var is used in cluster folder and points to the _kubevirtci where the cluster is deployed from.
diff --git a/hack/bump-kubevirtci.sh b/hack/bump-kubevirtci.sh
index 72726a938..62c36c14e 100755
--- a/hack/bump-kubevirtci.sh
+++ b/hack/bump-kubevirtci.sh
@@ -3,6 +3,6 @@
 KUBEVIRTCI_TAG=$(curl -L -Ss https://storage.googleapis.com/kubevirt-prow/release/kubevirt/kubevirtci/latest)
 [[ ${#KUBEVIRTCI_TAG} != "18" ]] && echo "error getting KUBEVIRTCI_TAG" && exit 1
 
-sed -i "s/export KUBEVIRTCI_TAG=.*/export KUBEVIRTCI_TAG='${KUBEVIRTCI_TAG}'/g" cluster/cluster.sh
+sed -i "s/\(KUBEVIRTCI_TAG:-\)[^}]*/\1${KUBEVIRTCI_TAG}/" cluster/cluster.sh
 
 git --no-pager diff cluster/cluster.sh | grep KUBEVIRTCI_TAG || true