diff --git a/cd/Jenkinsfile_cd_pipeline b/cd/Jenkinsfile_cd_pipeline
index 85b06cb09bb0..d7872204fcb7 100644
--- a/cd/Jenkinsfile_cd_pipeline
+++ b/cd/Jenkinsfile_cd_pipeline
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ pipeline {
 
   parameters {
     // Release parameters
-    string(defaultValue: "cpu,mkl,cu80,cu80mkl,cu90,cu90mkl,cu92,cu92mkl,cu100,cu100mkl", description: "Comma separated list of variants", name: "MXNET_VARIANTS")
+    string(defaultValue: "cpu,mkl,cu90,cu90mkl,cu92,cu92mkl,cu100,cu100mkl,cu101,cu101mkl", description: "Comma separated list of variants", name: "MXNET_VARIANTS")
     booleanParam(defaultValue: false, description: 'Whether this is a release build or not', name: "RELEASE_BUILD")
   }
 
diff --git a/cd/README.md b/cd/README.md
index fd978c1d819e..a66fd0ce5533 100644
--- a/cd/README.md
+++ b/cd/README.md
@@ -31,14 +31,14 @@ Currently, 10 variants are supported:
 
 * *cpu*: CPU
 * *mkl*: CPU w/ MKL
-* *cu80*: CUDA 8.0
-* *cu80mkl*: CUDA 8.0 w/ MKL-DNN
 * *cu90*: CUDA 9.0
 * *cu90mkl*: CUDA 9.0 w/ MKL-DNN
 * *cu92*: CUDA 9.2
 * *cu92mkl*: CUDA 9.2 w/ MKL-DNN
 * *cu100*: CUDA 10
 * *cu100mkl*: CUDA 10 w/ MKL-DNN
+* *cu101*: CUDA 10
+* *cu101mkl*: CUDA 10.1 w/ MKL-DNN
 
 *For more on variants, see [here](https://github.com/apache/incubator-mxnet/issues/8671)*
 
diff --git a/ci/docker/runtime_functions.sh b/ci/docker/runtime_functions.sh
index ac962527d7f7..dedee318611c 100755
--- a/ci/docker/runtime_functions.sh
+++ b/ci/docker/runtime_functions.sh
@@ -834,6 +834,8 @@ cd_unittest_ubuntu() {
     export PYTHONPATH=./python/
     export MXNET_MKLDNN_DEBUG=1  # Ignored if not present
     export MXNET_STORAGE_FALLBACK_LOG_VERBOSE=0
+    export MXNET_ENABLE_CYTHON=0
+    export CD_JOB=1 # signal this is a CD run so any unecessary tests can be skipped
 
     local mxnet_variant=${1:?"This function requires a mxnet variant as the first argument"}
     local python_cmd=${2:?"This function requires a python command as the first argument"}
diff --git a/python/mxnet/test_utils.py b/python/mxnet/test_utils.py
index 4533729e2c15..abdf57039c3a 100644
--- a/python/mxnet/test_utils.py
+++ b/python/mxnet/test_utils.py
@@ -2220,3 +2220,8 @@ def collapse_sum_like(a, shape):
             assert s == 1
             axes.append(i+ndim_diff)
     return np.sum(a, axis=tuple(axes)).reshape(shape)
+
+
+def is_cd_run():
+    """Checks if the test is running as part of a Continuous Delivery run"""
+    return os.environ.get("CD_JOB", 0) == "1"
diff --git a/tests/python/unittest/test_library_loading.py b/tests/python/unittest/test_library_loading.py
index 596d124c89d6..29b99dacdbe1 100644
--- a/tests/python/unittest/test_library_loading.py
+++ b/tests/python/unittest/test_library_loading.py
@@ -22,12 +22,13 @@
 import unittest
 import mxnet as mx
 from mxnet.base import MXNetError
-from mxnet.test_utils import download
+from mxnet.test_utils import download, is_cd_run
 
 def check_platform():
     return platform.machine() not in ['x86_64', 'AMD64']
 
 @unittest.skipIf(check_platform(), "not all machine types supported")
+@unittest.skipIf(is_cd_run(), "continuous delivery run - ignoring test")
 def test_library_loading():
     if (os.name=='posix'):
         lib = 'libsample_lib.so'