diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 2c74ee996..6011120bb 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ notifications:
 branches:
   only:
     - master
+    - 5.21
     # enable building tags
     - /^v\d+\.\d+(\.\d+)?(-\S*)?$/
 
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e77eec121..fdb49f13b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# UNRELEASED
+# 5.21.0-rc.1
   - Changes from 5.20.0
     - Features:
       - ADDED: all waypoints in responses now contain a distance property between the original coordinate and the snapped location. [#5255](https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/pull/5255)
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index cf185c76a..6246a6bf4 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "osrm",
-  "version": "5.20.0-latest.1",
+  "version": "5.21.0-rc.1",
   "private": false,
   "description": "The Open Source Routing Machine is a high performance routing engine written in C++14 designed to run on OpenStreetMap data.",
   "dependencies": {