diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index e4c0e1472456b1a82fd11720543d0570c1bef660..01a92350b5230b6a5c7d99eaa9011072252be541 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@
 
 # Definition of global variables (all stages)
 variables:
-  CONDA_ROOT: "${CI_PROJECT_DIR}/miniconda"
+  MINICONDA_DIR: "miniconda"
+  CONDA_ROOT: "${CI_PROJECT_DIR}/${MINICONDA_DIR}"
 
 
 # Definition of our build pipeline order
@@ -29,8 +30,8 @@ stages:
   cache: &build_caches
     paths:
       - miniconda.sh
-      - ${CONDA_ROOT}/pkgs/*.tar.bz2
-      - ${CONDA_ROOT}/pkgs/urls.txt
+      - ${MINICONDA_DIR}/pkgs/*.tar.bz2
+      - ${MINICONDA_DIR}/pkgs/urls.txt
 
 
 .build_linux_template: &linux_build_job
@@ -42,7 +43,7 @@ stages:
     expire_in: 1 week
     paths:
       - _ci/
-      - ${CONDA_ROOT}/conda-bld/linux-64/*.tar.bz2
+      - ${MINICONDA_DIR}/conda-bld/linux-64/*.tar.bz2
   cache:
     <<: *build_caches
     key: "linux-cache"
@@ -56,7 +57,7 @@ stages:
     expire_in: 1 week
     paths:
       - _ci/
-      - ${CONDA_ROOT}/conda-bld/osx-64/*.tar.bz2
+      - ${MINICONDA_DIR}/conda-bld/osx-64/*.tar.bz2
   cache:
     <<: *build_caches
     key: "macosx-cache"
@@ -73,7 +74,7 @@ build_linux_36:
       - _ci/
       - dist/*.zip
       - sphinx
-      - ${CONDA_ROOT}/conda-bld/linux-64/*.tar.bz2
+      - ${MINICONDA_DIR}/conda-bld/linux-64/*.tar.bz2
 
 
 build_macosx_36: