diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 44b7dc405a3c0..fefad63965d41 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ gcs-publish-ci: gsutil version-dist-ci
 	@echo "== Uploading kops =="
 	gsutil -h "Cache-Control:private, max-age=0, no-transform" -m cp -n -r ${UPLOAD}/kops/* ${GCS_LOCATION}
 	echo "VERSION: ${VERSION}"
-	echo "${GCS_URL}/${VERSION}" > ${UPLOAD}/${LATEST_FILE}
+	echo "${GCS_URL}${VERSION}" > ${UPLOAD}/${LATEST_FILE}
 	gsutil -h "Cache-Control:private, max-age=0, no-transform" cp ${UPLOAD}/${LATEST_FILE} ${GCS_LOCATION}
 
 .PHONY: gen-cli-docs
diff --git a/tests/e2e/kubetest2-kops/deployer/common.go b/tests/e2e/kubetest2-kops/deployer/common.go
index 5135b53a6b78b..041fa8ad4ff52 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/kubetest2-kops/deployer/common.go
+++ b/tests/e2e/kubetest2-kops/deployer/common.go
@@ -20,14 +20,12 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
-	"path"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
 	"k8s.io/klog/v2"
 	"k8s.io/kops/tests/e2e/kubetest2-kops/gce"
-	"k8s.io/kops/tests/e2e/pkg/kops"
 	"k8s.io/kops/tests/e2e/pkg/target"
 	"k8s.io/kops/tests/e2e/pkg/util"
 	"sigs.k8s.io/kubetest2/pkg/boskos"
@@ -51,14 +49,6 @@ func (d *deployer) initialize() error {
 			return fmt.Errorf("init failed to check up flags: %v", err)
 		}
 	}
-	if d.KopsVersionMarker != "" {
-		d.KopsBinaryPath = path.Join(d.commonOptions.RunDir(), "kops")
-		baseURL, err := kops.DownloadKops(d.KopsVersionMarker, d.KopsBinaryPath)
-		if err != nil {
-			return fmt.Errorf("init failed to download kops from url: %v", err)
-		}
-		d.KopsBaseURL = baseURL
-	}
 
 	switch d.CloudProvider {
 	case "aws":
diff --git a/tests/e2e/kubetest2-kops/deployer/up.go b/tests/e2e/kubetest2-kops/deployer/up.go
index 604060e4d7a04..e5aeb3d4d6785 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/kubetest2-kops/deployer/up.go
+++ b/tests/e2e/kubetest2-kops/deployer/up.go
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	osexec "os/exec"
+	"path"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
@@ -41,6 +42,17 @@ func (d *deployer) Up() error {
 		return err
 	}
 
+	// kops is fetched when --up is called instead of init to support a scenario where k/k is being built
+	// and a kops build is not ready yet
+	if d.KopsVersionMarker != "" {
+		d.KopsBinaryPath = path.Join(d.commonOptions.RunDir(), "kops")
+		baseURL, err := kops.DownloadKops(d.KopsVersionMarker, d.KopsBinaryPath)
+		if err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("init failed to download kops from url: %v", err)
+		}
+		d.KopsBaseURL = baseURL
+	}
+
 	if d.terraform == nil {
 		klog.Info("Cleaning up any leaked resources from previous cluster")
 		// Intentionally ignore errors:
@@ -118,6 +130,7 @@ func (d *deployer) createCluster(zones []string, adminAccess string, yes bool) e
 		"--kubernetes-version", d.KubernetesVersion,
 		"--ssh-public-key", d.SSHPublicKeyPath,
 		"--set", "cluster.spec.nodePortAccess=0.0.0.0/0",
+		"--set", `spec.containerd.configAdditions="plugins.""io.containerd.grpc.v1.cri"".containerd.runtimes.test-handler.runtime_type=""io.containerd.runc.v2"""`,
 	}
 	if yes {
 		args = append(args, "--yes")
diff --git a/tests/e2e/pkg/kops/state.go b/tests/e2e/pkg/kops/state.go
index e5b14fb115ebe..5b799f7e2af79 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/pkg/kops/state.go
+++ b/tests/e2e/pkg/kops/state.go
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import (
 
 	"k8s.io/klog/v2"
 	api "k8s.io/kops/pkg/apis/kops/v1alpha2"
+	"k8s.io/kops/pkg/cloudinstances"
 	"sigs.k8s.io/kubetest2/pkg/exec"
 )
 
@@ -61,6 +62,28 @@ func GetCluster(kopsBinary, clusterName string, env []string) (*api.Cluster, err
 	return cluster, nil
 }
 
+// GetCluster will retrieve the specified Cluster from the state store.
+func GetInstances(kopsBinary, clusterName string, env []string) ([]*cloudinstances.CloudInstance, error) {
+	args := []string{
+		kopsBinary, "get", "instances", "--name", clusterName, "-ojson",
+	}
+	c := exec.Command(args[0], args[1:]...)
+	c.SetEnv(env...)
+	var stdout bytes.Buffer
+	c.SetStdout(&stdout)
+	var stderr bytes.Buffer
+	c.SetStderr(&stderr)
+	if err := c.Run(); err != nil {
+		klog.Warningf("failed to run %s; stderr=%s", strings.Join(args, " "), stderr.String())
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error querying instances from %s: %w", strings.Join(args, " "), err)
+	}
+	var instances []*cloudinstances.CloudInstance
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(stdout.Bytes(), &instances); err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error parsing instance groups json: %w", err)
+	}
+	return instances, nil
+}
+
 // GetInstanceGroups will retrieve the instance groups for the specified Cluster from the state store.
 func GetInstanceGroups(kopsBinary, clusterName string, env []string) ([]*api.InstanceGroup, error) {
 	args := []string{