... when the backend can't be reached.

Fixes #9864

Change-Id: I9e4814824943060e0101b6236d6dfd8d7822b4c7
Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/21363Reviewed-by: Andrew Gerrand <adg@golang.org>
Run-TryBot: Brad Fitzpatrick <bradfitz@golang.org>
TryBot-Result: Gobot Gobot <gobot@golang.org>