diff --git a/scripts/release_helpers.sh b/scripts/release_helpers.sh
index 3b7b172..3da9f6d 100644
--- a/scripts/release_helpers.sh
+++ b/scripts/release_helpers.sh
@@ -37,9 +37,11 @@ tag_release() {
 find_latest_version() {
   local _pattern="v[0-9]\+.[0-9]\+.[0-9]\+"
   local _versions
+  local _latest
   _versions=$(git ls-remote --tags --quiet | grep $_pattern | tr '/' ' ' | awk '{print $NF}')
   if [ "$_versions" != "" ]; then
-    echo "$_versions" | tr '.' ' ' | sort -nr -k 1 -k 2 -k 3 | tr ' ' '.' | head -1
+    _latest=$(echo "$_versions" | sed 's/v//' | tr '.' ' ' | sort -nr -k 1 -k 2 -k 3 | tr ' ' '.' | head -1)
+    echo "v$_latest"
   else
     git rev-list --max-parents=0 HEAD
   fi
@@ -69,7 +71,7 @@ bump_version() {
   fi
 
   log "commiting and pushing the version bump to github"
-  git config --global user.email $git_email 
+  git config --global user.email $git_email
   git config --global user.name $git_user
   git_add_version_files
   git commit -m "chore: version bump to v$VERSION"
@@ -142,7 +144,7 @@ push_release() {
   log "commiting and pushing the release to github"
   _version_no_tag=$(echo $VERSION | awk -F. '{printf("%d.%d.%d", $1, $2, $3)}')
   if [ "$CI" != "" ]; then
-    git config --global user.email $git_email 
+    git config --global user.email $git_email
     git config --global user.name $git_user
   fi
   git checkout -B release