diff --git a/src/main/groovy/io/seqera/wave/proxy/ProxyClient.groovy b/src/main/groovy/io/seqera/wave/proxy/ProxyClient.groovy
index cf09a6ee2..5e068d4c5 100644
--- a/src/main/groovy/io/seqera/wave/proxy/ProxyClient.groovy
+++ b/src/main/groovy/io/seqera/wave/proxy/ProxyClient.groovy
@@ -200,6 +200,10 @@ class ProxyClient {
             traceResponse(response)
             return response
         }
+        catch (IOException e) {
+            // just re-throw it so that it's managed by the retry policy
+            throw e
+        }
         catch (Exception e) {
             throw new InternalServerException("Unexpected error on HTTP GET request '$uri'", e)
         }