diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index ff72587b008f6105f384135788b87dc4d93f5dca..88fccd1a4b2c90cf450020a3acc0762ae6f0760b 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -3,16 +3,11 @@
 #image: ruby:2.1
 
 stages:
-  - prep
   - test
   - deploy
 
-# we don't need to do anything before each stage
-#before_script:
-
-install-php:
-  stage: prep
-  script:
+# make sure php is in the image
+before_script:
    - apt-get clean
    - apt-get update
    - apt-get install -y php5-cli