diff --git a/components/renku_data_services/repositories/utils.py b/components/renku_data_services/repositories/utils.py
index 69d42ac5a..c2c9dcd14 100644
--- a/components/renku_data_services/repositories/utils.py
+++ b/components/renku_data_services/repositories/utils.py
@@ -7,7 +7,10 @@ async def probe_repository(repository_url: str) -> bool:
     """Probe a repository to check if it is publicly available."""
     async with httpx.AsyncClient(timeout=5) as client:
         url = f"{repository_url}/info/refs?service=git-upload-pack"
-        res = await client.get(url=url, follow_redirects=True)
-        if res.status_code != 200:
+        try:
+            res = await client.get(url=url, follow_redirects=True)
+            if res.status_code != 200:
+                return False
+            return bool(res.headers.get("Content-Type") == "application/x-git-upload-pack-advertisement")
+        except httpx.HTTPError:
             return False
-        return bool(res.headers.get("Content-Type") == "application/x-git-upload-pack-advertisement")
diff --git a/test/bases/renku_data_services/data_api/test_repositories.py b/test/bases/renku_data_services/data_api/test_repositories.py
index de4b61f1a..507984a81 100644
--- a/test/bases/renku_data_services/data_api/test_repositories.py
+++ b/test/bases/renku_data_services/data_api/test_repositories.py
@@ -139,3 +139,19 @@ async def test_get_one_repository_not_found(
     assert result.get("connection_id") == connection["id"]
     assert result.get("provider_id") == "provider_1"
     assert result.get("repository_metadata") is None
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "repository_url,status_code",
+    [
+        ("https://github.com/SwissDataScienceCenter/renku.git", 200),
+        ("https://example.org/does-not-exist.git", 404),
+        ("http://foobar", 404),
+    ],
+)
+async def test_get_one_repository_probe(sanic_client: SanicASGITestClient, repository_url, status_code):
+    repository_url_param = quote_plus(repository_url)
+    _, response = await sanic_client.get(f"/api/data/repositories/{repository_url_param}/probe")
+
+    assert response.status_code == status_code, response.text