diff --git a/.gitpod.yml b/.gitpod.yml
index 5bf028750f30f..94b56df6daa4e 100644
--- a/.gitpod.yml
+++ b/.gitpod.yml
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ tasks:
       pre-commit install --install-hooks
     command: |
       python -m pip install -ve . --no-build-isolation -Ceditable-verbose=true
+      rm -f build/cp310/_version_meson.py    # this file breaks setup if not removed (causes untagged pandas version to be used)
       echo "✨ Pre-build complete! You can close this terminal ✨ "
 
 # --------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v3.0.0.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v3.0.0.rst
index b799b7ea5cb39..8078b9873a668 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v3.0.0.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v3.0.0.rst
@@ -798,6 +798,7 @@ Other
 - Bug in :meth:`read_csv` where chained fsspec TAR file and ``compression="infer"`` fails with ``tarfile.ReadError`` (:issue:`60028`)
 - Bug in Dataframe Interchange Protocol implementation was returning incorrect results for data buffers' associated dtype, for string and datetime columns (:issue:`54781`)
 - Bug in ``Series.list`` methods not preserving the original :class:`Index`. (:issue:`58425`)
+- Bug in ``_version_meson.py`` when building pandas in Gitpod environment, using an (unusable) untagged version of pandas that breaks the build
 - Bug in ``Series.list`` methods not preserving the original name. (:issue:`60522`)
 - Bug in printing a :class:`DataFrame` with a :class:`DataFrame` stored in :attr:`DataFrame.attrs` raised a ``ValueError`` (:issue:`60455`)
 
diff --git a/pandas/__init__.py b/pandas/__init__.py
index c570fb8d70204..864240ef38c7f 100644
--- a/pandas/__init__.py
+++ b/pandas/__init__.py
@@ -183,7 +183,7 @@
     _built_with_meson = True
 except ImportError:
     from pandas._version import get_versions
-
+    
     v = get_versions()
     __version__ = v.get("closest-tag", v["version"])
     __git_version__ = v.get("full-revisionid")