diff --git a/lib/galaxy/version/__init__.py b/lib/galaxy/version/__init__.py
index 73aebcee8c1..6e66b30b095 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/version/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy/version/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 VERSION_MAJOR = "26.1"
-VERSION_MINOR = "dev0"
+VERSION_MINOR = "rc1"
 VERSION = VERSION_MAJOR + (f".{VERSION_MINOR}" if VERSION_MINOR else "")