diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 3878a1415ca..4926ede122b 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ notifications:
 branches:
   only:
     - master
+    - "5.18"
     # enable building tags
     - /^v\d+\.\d+(\.\d+)?(-\S*)?$/
 
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 52b1c2a1dfd..9b0db06c0a2 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# UNRELEASED
+# 5.18.0 RC1
   - Changes from 5.17.0:
     - Features:
       - ADDED: `table` plugin now optionally returns `distance` matrix as part of response [#4990](https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/pull/4990)
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index c33fa4e2826..9b53959ce70 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "osrm",
-  "version": "5.18.0-latest.1",
+  "version": "5.18.0-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": {