tests: increase kubectl download retries

[kayrus]

What this PR does / why we need it:

Increase retries for #3059

Which issue this PR fixes(if applicable):
fixes #

Special notes for reviewers:

Release note:

NONE

[stephenfin]

/approve
/lgtm

[k8s-ci-robot]

[APPROVALNOTIFIER] This PR is APPROVED

This pull-request has been approved by: stephenfin

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• OWNERS [stephenfin]

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[kayrus]

/cherry-pick release-1.34
/cherry-pick release-1.33
/cherry-pick release-1.32

[k8s-infra-cherrypick-robot]

@kayrus: once the present PR merges, I will cherry-pick it on top of release-1.32, release-1.33, release-1.34 in new PRs and assign them to you.

Details

In response to this:

/cherry-pick release-1.34
/cherry-pick release-1.33
/cherry-pick release-1.32

Instructions for interacting with me using PR comments are available here. If you have questions or suggestions related to my behavior, please file an issue against the kubernetes-sigs/prow repository.

[stephenfin]

/lgtm

[kayrus]

just an example on what happens:

TASK [install-k3s : Get latest kubectl version] ********************************
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (50 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (49 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (48 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (47 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (46 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (45 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (44 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (43 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (42 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (41 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (40 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (39 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (38 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (37 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (36 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (35 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (34 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (33 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (32 retries left).
FAILED - RETRYING: [34.186.112.101]: Get latest kubectl version (31 retries left).
ok: [34.186.112.101] => {
    "accept_ranges": "bytes",
    "access_control_allow_origin": "*",
    "attempts": 21,
    "cache_control": "private, no-store",
    "changed": false,
    "connection": "close",
    "content": "v1.35.0",
    "content_length": "7",
    "content_type": "text/plain",
    "cookies": {},
    "cookies_string": "",
    "date": "Fri, 23 Jan 2026 15:39:40 GMT",
    "elapsed": 18,
    "etag": "\"74bf5606399493a463587dbc75685f6e\"",
    "last_modified": "Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:03:45 GMT",
    "redirected": true,
    "status": 200,
    "url": "https://cdn.dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt"
}

[k8s-ci-robot]

@kayrus: The following tests failed, say /retest to rerun all failed tests or /retest-required to rerun all mandatory failed tests:

Test name	Commit	Details	Required	Rerun command
openstack-cloud-csi-cinder-e2e-test	68497b5	link	true	/test openstack-cloud-csi-cinder-e2e-test
openstack-cloud-csi-manila-e2e-test	68497b5	link	true	/test openstack-cloud-csi-manila-e2e-test

Full PR test history. Your PR dashboard. Please help us cut down on flakes by linking to an open issue when you hit one in your PR.

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Instructions for interacting with me using PR comments are available here. If you have questions or suggestions related to my behavior, please file an issue against the kubernetes-sigs/prow repository. I understand the commands that are listed here.

[stephenfin]

/hold

This isn't helping. We'll need a different approach.