diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
index 6f11b60..bf222f2 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -34,8 +34,10 @@ jobs:
         fi
         export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH
         python3 -c "import platform, sys; print('[ENV_DEBUG] Platform:', platform.platform(), 'Python:', sys.version)"
+        python3 -c "import distutils, distutils.cygwinccompiler; print('[ENV_DEBUG] distutils path:', distutils.__file__)"
         python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip --user --quiet
-        python3 -m pip install "setuptools<60.0" "wheel" "Cython" --user --quiet
+        python3 -m pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall "setuptools==59.6.0" "wheel" "Cython" --user --quiet
+        python3 -c "import setuptools; print('[ENV_DEBUG] installed setuptools:', setuptools.__version__)"
         python3 -m pip install "numpy==1.24.4" --user --quiet --no-build-isolation
         python3 -m pip install "pandas==2.0.3" --user --quiet --no-build-isolation
         if [ -f requirements.txt ]; then python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt --user --quiet --prefer-binary; fi