Froome moved 28 seconds ahead of fellow British rider Adam Yates.
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His most troubling moment this time has had nothing to do with racing.
But two-time former victor Alberto Contador was not among them having abandoned the race 80km into the stage.
Having injured his entire right side in crashes on the opening two stages, and woken up on Sunday morning with a virus, Contador was forced into quitting the Tour early for the second time in three years.
Ireland’s Dan Martin is 19secs down while Colombia’s Nairo Quintana – who was runner-up past year and is his biggest threat – is 23 secs adrift.
Porte is outside the top 10 due to time he lost on the second stage after suffering a late puncture.
However, on the following first category climb, De Gendt was quickly caught and immediately dropped by a select group of eight better climbers from the breakaway. The spectator walked out in front of Bennett on the final Arcalis climb.
In the flurry of attacks that followed, Froome had a go himself, but Quintana was on him in a flash.
Froome came under intense scrutiny previous year after a scintillating attack on the first mountain stage of the Tour gave him a decisive advantage over his rivals.
ANDORRA LA VELLA, Andorra (AP) – Chris Froome is finally receiving acclaim from fans alongside the roads of the Tour de France. Froome responded by landing a left jab to the spectator’s face.
“It was a surprise also for me”, Sagan said. “All the way up to the last kilometre and into the last kilometre, I thought, “He hasn’t attacked yet, maybe he’s saving it for one big move” but that never came”.
Quite apart from the defensive tactics needed on the road and the media obligations off it, carrying yellow has in the past meant for Froome a barrage of unsubstantiated allegations and rumours about doping – and he even had urine thrown at him during last year’s Tour.
“It really is a good place to be at the moment, I m really happy to have the yellow jersey on my shoulders”, said Froome.
The second day in the mountains, stage 8 to Luchon, answered a lot of questions, not only about who were the best riders in the race, but also the best team.
I am not losing time on objective. The 25-year-old is over two hours and 20 minutes behind Froome. “We actually got an email from the UCI yesterday saying thank you for being the most cooperative team out of everybody in the bike checks”. “His bike’s been tested more than anyone else’s, we’re getting tested every day”. I have to go day by day and see a possibility of attack.
“I hope he tries to hang on to the podium”, said the Team Sky head said.
“We ve seen Chris attack, we ve seen a couple of other skirmishes if you like, but as of yet it s been a relatively compact race”, he said.
“At the end of the day there’s only one team controlling this race, that’s us”.
“Ventoux is the next big thing we’ve got our sights on now”.
The 31-year-old won a similar stage that ended atop the “Beast of Provence” in 2013, catching Quintana before finishing 29 seconds ahead of the Movistar rider.
Froome believes the race so far has shown he’s simply got the strongest team-mates to fall back on.
“We will just take it day by day and if we have the legs, we keep rolling with it”.
“I m confident the guys will be able to ride in that defensive way to help me”.
Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford said the testing should close the debate as it would be foolhardy to even try to cheat in such a way.
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“We re concentrating on effectiveness, there s no prize for the one who attacks the most”, he said.
